piston ring orientation

[Rif Raf Racing]

Assembling a fresh 1166 topend,Weisco tells me how to clock the oil rails,but not the second and top ring (my haynes manual is no help as usual).thanks, Steve

[Anonymous]

Normal (Suzuki Manual) ring gap orientation is 7:30 oclock for top ring, 4:30 oclock for second ring, (this brings the gaps away from the exhaust side) and side rails for the oil ring at 1:30 and 10:30.

Kim

[focus frenzy]

unfortunatly there is nothing to keep the rings from walking around.
I don't know why suzuki pistons dont have pins in the ring lands to keep them from moving like is common with other pistons.

[Anonymous]

I've got to ask - why does it matter? As noted, the rings are not staked, so they will rotate anyway. And it's not a two stroke where you have to worry about snagging a port opening and breaking the ring. Seems to me that it is pretty non-critical in a four stroke engine with poppet valves. Am I missing something?

Mark

[Rif Raf Racing]

thanks,kim,leon,mark. Im thinking it really doesnt matter because they certainly can/and will move around over time.I will go with the 4:30/7:30 plan. Steve

[Anonymous]

I've got to ask - why does it matter? As noted, the rings are not staked, so they will rotate anyway. And it's not a two stroke where you have to worry about snagging a port opening and breaking the ring. Seems to me that it is pretty non-critical in a four stroke engine with poppet valves. Am I missing something?

Mark

It's a matter of having a few small things adding up.

The rings won't rotate much, and when they bed in they probably won't move at all. It's not as if they turn around the piston for their whole life.

Putting the gaps at different angles means that there is not an easy path through the gaps for carbon movement into the sump. If all the gaps lined up then you introduce an easier leakage path.

Having the top ring gaps away from the exhaust ports means that the normal flow of burnt fuel moves any carbon deposits away from the gap.

Kim

[argonsagas]

I've got to ask - why does it matter? As noted, the rings are not staked, so they will rotate anyway. And it's not a two stroke where you have to worry about snagging a port opening and breaking the ring. Seems to me that it is pretty non-critical in a four stroke engine with poppet valves. Am I missing something?

Mark

It's a matter of having a few small things adding up.

The rings won't rotate much, and when they bed in they probably won't move at all. It's not as if they turn around the piston for their whole life.

Putting the gaps at different angles means that there is not an easy path through the gaps for carbon movement into the sump. If all the gaps lined up then you introduce an easier leakage path.

Having the top ring gaps away from the exhaust ports means that the normal flow of burnt fuel moves any carbon deposits away from the gap.

Kim

This is an age-old query, and Leon is correct, the rings will move, but Kim has answered it quite nicely.

Having the gaps of all rings in line when you first start up the engine may seem to be of small concern, but it IS a concern. It actually is important to observe spacing suggestions before first start-up, and then let the rings bed themselves in.

There was another ancient item connected with this: you are also supposed to check the gap of all new rings. Aaaaaaahhhhhh if only I could remember the formula for determining how much gap you should have with new rings... :? :? :?