Hello everybody,
Tonight I began to put new rings in my 352 out of my 1965 F-350. They are standard size (No overbore) and they are Grant piston rings. The top 2 compression rings were barely over the tolerance (which was .020, compression rings were maybe .022) so I am not to concerned about those. My question is reguarding the oil control ring. The two mini rings (name?) that go above and below the oil control ring are good, within tolerance and all, but the oil control ring is too big. Its also entirely different from the old oil control ring. The old ones waves went up and down agains the piston, where the waves on the new ring go in and out from the piston. According to Chilton, the end gap on the oil control ring should be .015-.035, but to fit it it I had to cram it and there is no gap at all. Also, where the oil ring comes togeather there is a colored piece of plastic on either side attached to the oil control ring.
Here are the questions: Do you need the plastic pieces? It seems like those are going to melt and break off, not good.
Is it normal that the oil control ring is that big? When you hold them in your hand it naturaly overlaps on itself, where the old oil control rings do not. This does not seem right at all, and it also would seem like a bad idea to "modify" the new ones in some way to get a gap. You really cant file down oil control rings (can you?)
A last thought, would it be really bad to leave the old oil control rings in the piston and just install the new compression rings?
Sorry about the long post, I GREATLY appreciate any help here.
Garrett

 

The pieces of plastic need to stay on the expander(what you are calling the oil ring) they are to prevent the ends from overlapping. It is normal for the oil ring assembly to be very snug.
I would install the new rings, they sound fine to me.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. I guess I was just worried that there was no gap at all, when the book said there should be. But you cant always believe the book i guess... It's just my first time doing this so I didnt want to make a stupid mistake. Again, thanks
Garrett

 

The gap listed is for the side rails, the thin shiny pieces, not for the expander part. The expander is butted end to end with no gap. Hope things are going together well.

 

I am actually thinking they did send the wrong expander size, even though the side rails fit. This is very wierd. Long story short, I had origionally ordered my rings from summit, but they were on backorder. I checked a week ago and the delivery date had been pushed back even further, Aug 10th, so I found a ring set at Macs auto parts. I planned to cancel the order after my new rings came. Then out of the blue, the rings arived from summit yesterday (they are "sealed power" by federal mogul), the day after my rings from macs came. The compression rings and side rails from both sets fit correctly, however, the expander rings from summit fit in much easier, in fact there is actually a small gap in the ends of the expander. This seems really wierd, especially because the side rails and expanders were in the same wrapped package when they came from macs. One place got it right, and one didnt. I am assuming that the rings from summit are correct, even though there is a slight gap in the expander ring, but I am not 100 % sure. As of now I am going to install summits rings, however, if you think this is wrong, drop a reply. Thanks for your help
Garrett