340 Rod questions
So what is the mechanism for the ring not working if removed and reinstalled? I'm not calling BS but I don't understand. The parts all move relative to each other to begin with so I don't see what would change?
Taking a ring out of a bore has ZERO affect on its sealing ability. That’s rediculous. I was going to let it go, but you asked what I figured many guys would ask.
First of all, the moly filled ring was developed so when an issue came up about ring seal in the field, you could slap a moly faced ring in the hole, WITHOUT honing and it would seal. And they do.
Second, ring seal is about bore geometry, surface finish, honing technique and some other things. BUT, the function, the physical sealing function of the ring is done by compression pressure on the compression stroke, and combustion pressure on the power stroke, and NOT by the racial tension of the ring, the fruit jar affect (yep...had an assclown in 1995 try to tell me that once a ring comes out of a bore, it breaks the seal like opening a jar of home canned fruit????????? WTF????? And this idiot was the resident expert) or anything else.
The vast majority of top rings have an orientation marker on them that says what side goes up. If it doesn’t, it’s either a cheap assed ring set, or more likely it has a bevel on the ID and this side always goes up.
That bevel is what allows compression and combustion pressure to go down the side of the piston, where it hits the top of the ring, and then that pressure moves across the top of the ring, around the bevel and that pressure gets behind the ring and forces the ring into the bore and THAT is what causes the ring to seal.
When you get to performance rings and high horsepower engines (which is now happening to what I consider very low performance street/strip junk such a my own garbage) you have the option of thin rings (IMHO anything thicker than an .043 ring is too thick...so IMHO a 1/16 ring pack is a low performance ring pack) and vertical or lateral gas ports in the pistons.
These are simple holes drilled in the deck of the piston that break through to the back of the ring groove (these are verticals gas ports) which makes ring response to pressure much quicker AND you can use thinner rings, with less racial tension which saves power by way of less drag.
Horizontal gas ports do the same thing, except these are slots milled in the top of the top ring groove. They do the same thing, and these are less prone to carbon fouling, but if your tune up is decent it shouldn’t be an issue with either form of gas porting.
The newest “gas porting” system is made by Total Seal and this system is a series of grooves in the top of the ring itself. There are said to be several benefits to this system, and I’m going to pull my junk down and and get my top rings machined for this.
At any rate, ring seal has nothing to do with taking rings out of a bore.
