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I'm on a severely low budget and since i have fairly low mileage on my car, i need to find some used piston rings. Primarily the top 2 as I've had 3 pistons with rings that won't free up. I know, i know.... not recommended and highly unorthodox, but new rings mean full rebuild. My bore is standard and never been done before. Please help! Lol
New rings do not mean a full rebuild. Just hone the cylinders and re ring with standard rings, shouldn't be any problem unless the cylinders are out of speck Doubtful if someone has a set of rings that they saved that are removed from the pistons and out of the engine.... Tedd
New rings do not mean a full rebuild. Just hone the cylinders and re ring with standard rings, shouldn't be any problem unless the cylinders are out of speck Doubtful if someone has a set of rings that they saved that are removed from the pistons and out of the engine.... Tedd
OOPS... These are not standard size try Rocket acing Tony may be able to help.
speedway and Amazon only seems to have various oversized sets. Brooke down and went with fusik. At least they have the right stuff.... you'd think. Lol thanks
I can remember way back when people had engines overhauled, not rebuilt. An overhaul consisted of rings, inserts (rod bearings) and a valve job. The rings were usually cast iron since they would seat better on cylinders that were not being rebored. Perfect Circle was the most common piston rings, I believe Hastings were the brand for bearings and Victor was the preferred gasket. Man I am old.
Come on- standard size rings aren't hard to find. There's a couple sets on EBay that they can barely give away since its standard size. Fusick set at $99.50? No thanks, there's sets to be had for under $30 on EBay. Shop around
I can remember way back when people had engines overhauled, not rebuilt. An overhaul consisted of rings, inserts (rod bearings) and a valve job. The rings were usually cast iron since they would seat better on cylinders that were not being rebored. Perfect Circle was the most common piston rings, I believe Hastings were the brand for bearings and Victor was the preferred gasket. Man I am old.
I'm actually using a few Victor gaskets that were stored away after my friend's father in law closed his repair shop back in the 60s.... he kept his entire inventory. Much of it is only good for cores or man cave decoration lol. Getting it identified and pried out of his hands is another thing.
I'm on a severely low budget and since i have fairly low mileage on my car, i need to find some used piston rings. Primarily the top 2 as I've had 3 pistons with rings that won't free up. I know, i know.... not recommended and highly unorthodox, but new rings mean full rebuild. My bore is standard and never been done before. Please help! Lol
You will likely not find anything cheaper than this, unless someone makes a donation.
If you use a discount code, like 6926027962106683, you can save another $0.30.
These are relatively "soft" iron, so you can minimize what needs to be done with the wall. They will likely seat (after a while) even if you do nothing. Just be sure that there is no "ridge" at the top. If it's there, you will likely break the top ring and/or damage the "land" on the piston.
Good price Ozzie, I forgot about Rock Auto. Back in the day we often just re ringed, lapped the valves by hand and put in rod bearing half shells. Some engines ran for years that way.... Tedd
You are talking about what I referred to above as an overhaul. Two tools I can remember renting were a ridge reamer to cut the ridge out of the top of the cylinder so you didn't break a piston when you pulled the pistons out and a groove cleaner to clean the ring grooves where carbon built up as the rings wore.
If you use a discount code, like 6926027962106683, you can save another $0.30.
These are relatively "soft" iron, so you can minimize what needs to be done with the wall. They will likely seat (after a while) even if you do nothing. Just be sure that there is no "ridge" at the top. If it's there, you will likely break the top ring and/or damage the "land" on the piston.
Best wishes on keeping that '54 percolating.
i had to ream to get them out and we have the ring compressor to help. I already overpaid for fusik. Percolating won't be probably until spring or summer. Depends how bad our winter is.
Good price Ozzie, I forgot about Rock Auto. Back in the day we often just re ringed, lapped the valves by hand and put in rod bearing half shells. Some engines ran for years that way.... Tedd
That's what I thought too, Tedd. It's hard to beat under $6 for a full set of reasonable quality rings. Your description of "overhaul" is what I did a long time ago. But it couldn't have been too bad. One of my "patients" was my 55 year old Rambler currently with 400K miles on it.
i had to ream to get them out and we have the ring compressor to help. I already overpaid for fusik. Percolating won't be probably until spring or summer. Depends how bad our winter is.
It sounds like you might need to do some piston cleaning, especially in the ring grooves. And be sure to check for that "ridge".
Being you have a broken ring already it can be used to clean the grove of your piston if you don't want to rent a grove cleaner.
I have often wondered if soaking a piston in a water solution would soften the carbon deposits ? I know a blown head gasket will often show up with a bright clean piston top in the effected area. I wonder if a pre soak would help on the groves?.... Just a after thought.... Tedd
That's what I thought too, Tedd. It's hard to beat under $6 for a full set of reasonable quality rings. Your description of "overhaul" is what I did a long time ago. But it couldn't have been too bad. One of my "patients" was my 55 year old Rambler currently with 400K miles on it.
we've been soaking the pistons in Berryman Chem-dip. It really softens the carbon pretty nice. Thanks for the tip on cleaning the grooves tho, hadn't thought of that.
Be watchful to remove only carbon when cleaning the ring grooves. Too much pressure/ force can easily remove piston groove material, watch for metal shavings as you work. If you see any stop cleaning that area.
Deglazing the cylinder walls is recommended or the rings may never seat/break-in.
Once it is all together and has a couple of hundred miles, find an empty safe road to seat the rings by going full throttle from 20 to 50 mph and then coast from 50 to 20. Repeat this about ten times.
Oil the wrist pins immediately after soaking them so they do not seize.
Good luck!!!
I used to hear oldtimers talk about knurling the pistons. I never did this and I don't think it has been used very much in a lot of years. It was a way to actually expand the skirt of pistons to fit the worn cylinders. Here are a couple links:
I used to hear oldtimers talk about knurling the pistons. I never did this and I don't think it has been used very much in a lot of years. It was a way to actually expand the skirt of pistons to fit the worn cylinders. Here are a couple links:
Thanks for the links. They have revived an old question that I had years ago which never got a good answer. Since the greatest wear on the cylinder wall is at the top, and the knurling of the pistons is intended to give them a bit more diameter, why is nothing (like knurling) done to the upper part of the piston? (like around the ring lands & perhaps above when the cylinder wall "ridge" is to be removed) There's probably a reason that just never got to me.
I used to hear oldtimers talk about knurling the pistons. I never did this and I don't think it has been used very much in a lot of years. It was a way to actually expand the skirt of pistons to fit the worn cylinders. Here are a couple links:
September 27th, 2017, 03:33 PM
There's probably a reason that just never got to me.
