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Original Message
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| Probably not the rings. |
| By Gerry Proctor - 01/29/2004 6:57:08 AM; IP 207.133.188.254 |
While the compression rings do have a secondary function of oil control, a properly machined and assembled engine isn’t going to have an issue here just about regardless of what rings you’re using.
There are a couple of more likely possibilities. An old saying: It’s a poor craftsman who blames his tools. I’m not implying that your machinist has competency issues but it is not unheard of for a block to come back with a bore a bit more than it was supposed to. Happened to a friend of mine so I know it does happen. So if you have a set of .030 over rings and your block is .032 you’re going to have ring seal problems. Your machinist also has to know the type of ring you’re using so that you will have the correct surface finish on the final hone. The assembly of the engine is where you employ the “trust but verify” philosophy. This is where you, yourself, run a dial bore gauge down all the cylinders, mic or plastigauge the crank and rod journals, and check the ring end gaps in the block.
The oil control ring…well, is primarily responsible for controlling how much oil is on the cylinder wall. If you have a problem with the ring set, then there is no compression ring that will be able to make up the difference. Most of the time, you’re not going to have an issue here as long as the ring set floats in the ring land as it should. The oil control set also needs to work in an environment where it can do its job. If you have loose clearance on the bearings and the side clearance is loose and you’re running a high volume pump, you’re going to put a lot of oil on the cylinder. You can easily get to the point where you overload the control ring’s ability to move the oil off the wall.
Some folks also make the mistake of running low-tension rings on a street engine. If you don’t have a lot of negative pressure in the crankcase the rings won’t work properly. This is an application mistake.
And there’s also the possibility that the oil burning is being blamed on the rings and it’s coming from elsewhere like the valve stem seals and guides or oil being sucked through the intake ports from a failed gasket.
I do not use ZGS rings but that’s only because I don’t have any engines in need of an overhaul at this point. If all the engines this machinist and others did had oil burning problems with these rings, then you might have a legitimate argument that there is some issue with them. But that only some do leads me to believe otherwise. As long as these rings have been on the market we surely would have heard this by now if there was any merit to it.
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