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

 

Not sure about those oil rings you got being too big but don't use the old ones. Just think, you reassemble the entire engine, all that hard work and labor installing it in the vehicle to find that 7 out of 8 cylinders smoke like chimneys...rings are cheap. If you gotta get new ones or wait for a swap for those, just wait its worth it.

 

Thanks for the reply. Since the rings are standard size, I just dont think you could get them smaller. However, I had posted this in the 61-66 forum too, and was told that the expander is meant to be snug, so I think I'm just gonna put em in. (cross fingers)
Thanks, Garrett

 

Ya the expander does need to be snug b/c it just separates the upper and lower but you're makin it sound pretty tight. When upper and lower are assembled w/ the expander, does the expander pertrude past the oil rings? If it does then it must have been misboxed for a overbore set or something...

 

It sounds like you have SS50 oil control rings - actually made by Sealed Power. They can be bore size identified by the color of the plastic tabs. The expander is supposed to be snug in the bore - it works with the upper and lower rails to form a "spring" to keep oil down. The plastic pieces will still be fine after 100,000 miles...

 

73F100, I think you are correct that they packed overbore expander rings. Originally I had ordered my rings from summit, but they were on backorder, and then the delivery date got pushed back even further, so I found a set at macs auto parts. I planned to cancel the summit rings after my new set came. But then out of the blue my summit rings arived yesterday. (these are the sealed power rings). In both sets the compression rings and side rails are the same, and they both fit. However, the expander from summit fits in much better, in fact there is even a small gap between the ends of the expander ring. As of now I'm gonna put in the summit rings and return the order to macs, explaining the problem. Like you say though, the expanders should be snug, and there is a gap...
Its just that the expanders from macs aren't snug, they seem unreasonably tight to me. Any more imput would be appreciated. Thanks for your help
Garrett