Ring Gap?

my68barracuda said

The KB pistons mentioned have the top ring up very high on the piston so it sees a lot of heat. The heat causes the top ring to expand and that is why KB recommends a larger gap on the top ring for those pistons.
That said, the folks mentioning that taper is of more importance than the slightly OS ring gap are on the right track.
The slight increase in ring gap observed by the original poster will not be enough to impact blow by or compression assuming that bore geometry and size are with in specifications.

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The KB's have a lower top ring placement--KB's ring gap requirements are not based on the ring groove placement. Its the alloy. KB's get a bad rep from some and yet the only KB I've ever seen broken was my own and I knew I was hurting it when I had my foot buried and could hear the "can full of marbles" . High load and thus high heat will exceed KB's ring gap spec's in a hurry.

To the OP--I hope you were able to put a nice cross hatch on the cyl's and limit taper. If you used a rigid hone like a Sunnen AN series then your job was much easier--If you used a spring loaded 3 finger deal then I strongly doubt you will have much success. J.Rob