rings

[Art Romanelli]

What about Grover Corporation? They make pin piston rings.

[steve welte]

After more searching and calls I understand the problem is being looked at by one of the industry Legend's. So it's a waiting issue. It would be so easy for the manufacture to just say "we aren't going to stock them but we will supply them to you if you guys get together with a quantity order". They make money and have no inventory.

[Art Romanelli]

I was always curious about how the rings sit in the Mac piston and Benders . I always thought you dont want end gaps on the same side of the piston . What may I ask is the point? Is it a 2 stroke thing? Obviously they run , can or is it a good idea to stagger them ?, all things considered having the pin in the piston to keep the rings from rotating. Always wondered.

[ted johnson]

I was always curious about how the rings sit in the Mac piston and Benders . I always thought you dont want end gaps on the same side of the piston . What may I ask is the point? Is it a 2 stroke thing? Obviously they run , can or is it a good idea to stagger them ?, all things considered having the pin in the piston to keep the rings from rotating. Always wondered.

Having the end gap on opposite sides of the piston is less important than having the gap occur over a solid portion of the cylinder-I.E., not where the ring ends may hook on a port opening. This is especially true on squared ports or a single long exhaust port. Of course, if you have the choice, pin them in staggered fashion. TJ

[Art Romanelli]

Makes perfect sense , there can be alot going on in 2 stroker port wise.
Do people even bother trying to stagger? And is end gap as important?

[steve welte]

So it's amazing that through all this the factory tells me their one dealer, Who's engines are slow, no's nothing about this. He's very happy with the new ring. I've watched the engines people got from him and in 5 laps they are more than a 1/2 lap behind mine. That being said I contacted this un named person stating the problem just as he was leaving his shop to go to Adams. By the way he was late the day I called because it was raining there so those who were there know that happened. Funny how they won't pass the customer info onto the company. I guess I'm just a nobody that's really knows nothing about an engine so why listen to him. I was also told they ran the Ductile ring at 7,000 rpm for 300 hours. Whoopy do. It was cranking a whole 7,000. I'm going to find 12,000 every lap and on a big track I'll pull it back to 11,500 because it's going to be there a while. I think I'd rather listen to Dave Bonbright or Terry Ives on the race engine ring. That's my rant which is really passing on the info to keep everyone informed. Not really trying to flame anyone. It's all fact

[Randy Dacus]

So this  is no longer available  from the retail dealer  ?

[ted johnson]

Once upon a time, there were tests made with a special ring made of the flat .024 stock Mac used. The ring made one revolution, had a zee bend upward over the other end of the ring and continued around back to the zee bend. It was essentially a full circle .048 thick ring very similar to a Smalley Spiralox retaining ring. There was enough distance between the ring ends and the zee jog to accommodate expansion. The test Mc6 engine ran like wildfire, but the ring was just too expensive to make commercially. I can't remember who did this experiment. I just remember my Pop trying like the Devil to get hold of some. It was a normal thing for us to have Wiseco machine pistons with a single.053 groove, and we ran two .024 unpinned rings in a single groove. Of course, unpinned rings wouldn't be safe in an engine with a big single exhaust port, but these were earlier engines. We didn't square the exhaust ports, but rather gave the top of each port an arc to help guide the ring ends. The truth is that we should've pinned the rings from the piston wall rather than the crown. This would've meant that the gap, though aligned, would've occurred at a solid part of the cylinder liner. TJ

[David Luciani]

I've contacted a ring company.
they will need the exact specs on the ring and have a fifty order minimum.
if they are too pricey i can see carrying them in the store.
please post bore size desired i'm assuming the double.030 thickness is correct?

[ted johnson]

Dave, I talked with Dave B. last evening. According to him, the ring thickness on the newer 820's is .031. Of course, the bore is 2.531. No chrome rings on the earlier chrome or later Nikasil bore, please. Just a good steel ring for easy ring seating. It'd be nice being able to get rings in the same material and thickness for the 610's at 2.1875 bore. The issue there is that the 610 has a steel liner, so oversize rings from +.005 to +.050 would be needed there. Also, accommodation would have to be made for the anti rotation pin on 820 or 610 pistons. Most pins come in from the piston sidewall, but some come down from the crown. I imagine most of the guys capable of rebuilding their own engines would be able to grind the ring ends to accommodate whatever pins there would be on their particular piston. Ted