2 comments on “Engine Reassembly 2

  1. For you rockabilly fans, add to the list:

    Tennessee Plates by John Hiatt
    and
    Long White Cadillac by Dwight Yokum

  2. Piston rings are designed to rotate, much the same as your valves. Yes, at some point, all the ring gaps will align, then they won’t. It happens more than you can imagine. But, so what? Engines have done this forever and nobody ever took issue with it.

    There are rings that have no gap because the ends overlap. Other piston designs ‘pin’ the ring at the gap so it cannot turn.

    More importantly, exactly how much end gap did you give your rings??? The correct answer depends on what pistons you used and what kind of rings you bought. Hypereutectic alloy pistons, used by most modern cars now, conduct much more heat into the rings than old cast aluminum alloy pistons. (Forged pistons are different, yet.) Therefore, the end gap must be a LOT wider for expansion due to heat. New cars also use MOLY rings. These are some reasons why modern engines last 250,000 miles between overhauls. Using OEM materials only renders about 100,000 miles from the same build effort.

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