piston rings?

[Ed Wright]

I may do it wrong, but I use a fish scale, hooked to a zip tie around the rod cap, oil the cylinder wall, turn the block so the cylinder tested is level, parallel with the floor. Put the piston in upside down (rod toward me), with only the oil ring on it. Pull it with the fish scale. I do it a couple of times to make sure it repeats. Steady pull. My backwoods Okie method. Gotten by with it for over 50 years. There are likey better ways to do it.

A rep for Speed Pro told me many years ago that their "low tension" oil rings simply had expanders for a.030" smaller bore. May not be that way now. That was probably 20 years ago. I can tell you .060" smaller expanders pumped oil & smoked in my old '56 Chevy Jr Stocker. LOL

[Larry Hill]

Thanks Mr. Ed.

[carl hinkson]

One thing that is over looked using a fish scale was the block plate honed or was the scale test done on cylinders that were not plate honed ??

If the block was not plate honed once the heads are installed not its a whole different ball game as you dealing distorted cylinders ( Not Round cylinders )

I plate hone all my blocks which is more important with OEM blocks as they are pretty frail.

Do a search on Torque plate honing.

I have seen circle track engines that were not plate honed and even after 2 or 3 years running still no ring seal and poor leak down numbers.

Ring can never break in when cylinders are not round.

Fish scale tests depends on cylinder finish.

[randy wilson]

Originally Posted by carl hinkson

One thing that is over looked using a fish scale was the block plate honed or was the scale test done on cylinders that were not plate honed ??

If the block was not plate honed once the heads are installed not its a whole different ball game as you dealing distorted cylinders ( Not Round cylinders )

I plate hone all my blocks which is more important with OEM blocks as they are pretty frail.

Do a search on Torque plate honing.

I have seen circle track engines that were not plate honed and even after 2 or 3 years running still no ring seal and poor leak down numbers.

Ring can never break in when cylinders are not round.

Fish scale tests depends on cylinder finish.

I use a torque plate to test ring tension.

[carl hinkson]

Originally Posted by randy wilson

I use a torque plate to test ring tension.

What are you using for a hone and what finish do you use ?

[randy wilson]

Originally Posted by carl hinkson

What are you using for a hone and what finish do you use ?

Beats me. Al Parker does the honing, and I just trust him for the ring package. Never been wrong so far. I still check the tension. We had one 0.060 over 283 that literally was air tank tight. Zero leak down on 8 cylinders. Zero, nada, zilch, nothing.

[carl hinkson]

Originally Posted by randy wilson

Beats me. Al Parker does the honing, and I just trust him for the ring package. Never been wrong so far. I still check the tension. We had one 0.060 over 283 that literally was air tank tight. Zero leak down on 8 cylinders. Zero, nada, zilch, nothing.

Interesting !!! I know of Al Parker does some nice sprint car engines.