old rings

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homeboysduster

homeboysduster

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well It has been a while sense i have been on but I have been working on a nice 98 dodge ram! I love the knowledge and experience of the guys here and so I am posing this question!OK, I know this is a cheap skate question. but I have a little money hanging on this. SO, can a guy pull his pistons, re gap his rings,hone the block and re install the old rings on the old pistons? be easy with this guys! I got money hanging on this. I have never done it but I have heard of guys doing it and it working good. I have never heard of a motor being lost by doing it ether. so I haven't heard any thing bad about it but it gives me the willies thinking about doing it!!
 
Never heard of using used rings on anything but what do I know. I have seen plenty of good blocks cross hatched and the pistons be re-used when they were in tolerance but never the rings .
 
Could it be done...........well yes. Wont be much ring gappin' goin' on since the gap opens as they wear,,,,, as in already too wide:D.
 
he wants to ether super or turbo charge a 318. so he needs a bigger gap for the heat expansion. He likes the factory rings for some reason and doesn't want to loose them?!LOL
 
Rings are just not that much money. I use ONLY all cast rings. Several machinists told me years ago that the only real reason you need moly/ chrome rings is DIRT. If you keep a good air filter on 'er cast rings will last as long as that engine will.
 
Don't see why not. You could clean it up a little, get the crap out of the grooves, etc. then just re-assemble with the same care you would use on any build. Just one thing...if you have an engine with 50K left on it, when you are finished you will have an engine with 50K left on it, so it is really a whole lot of work for no gain.
 
Cast rIngs are as cheap as dirt.
Moly rings can be inexpensive to buy. But they can get very expensive.

You could use old rings on old pistons. But once you hone the cylinder, it would be a crazy move considering the price of rings. Absolutely nuts!

Yea, you win the bet, kind of. But you would have to be mental to do it that way. You would have problems with the engine. It would run. Andale
No power. A laughing stock you would be.
 
OldmanRick said:
rumblefish360 said:
But once you hone the cylinder.....

That's the key statement. Those rings will never seat again. Even if you run Comet thru the engine like guys even older than me used to do..........lol.
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Lol good ole bonAmi trick haha. I was worried i would have to try it on my 318 since i just honed the cylinders and when i ordered rings i thought i ordered cast, turns out i ordered moly but what i got was chrome rings lol confusing i know. Luckily i found some quick seat dry assembly film for cylinders that makes rings seat almost immediatley so no comet or bonami for me :) and yes im gonna run the chrome rings because it is such a tight budget and it cant hurt anything lol
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dustinmoran91 said:
When the chrome rings seal you can beat on'um pretty good from what i've heard. IIRC the dirt track guys used to use them because they were so hard faced they were hard to where out. Glad you knew where i was coming from...lol. I'm sure some didn't:D.
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Lol oh i know for sure. Im using used factory flat tops, stock rods and crank. I paid $114 for the entire re-ring kit with bearings and all. Only place ive spent money on this motor was a new cam and lifters, magnum heads and matching springs for the cam, and an intake. Also a timing chain lol didnt want to spend alot of money on it. To send the rings back it would cost me shipping plus 20% restocking fee and a new set would be $40 or i could get the quick seat film for $20 and do three engines with it lol
 
I've reused rings, bearings.....took rotating assembly from one block and droped it into another, gaskets were the only thing new. I did it as an experiment of how far can you push the limits of low buck. It worked, engine didn't smoke, I raced it and won with it.

If you're gonna pull the engine down to gap the rings for boost, just gap, don't hone, the rings are already seated to that cylinder. Just be sure to tell your customer/friend it also might not work. You'll never KNOW till you try it.
 
JBurch said:
I've reused rings, bearings.....took rotating assembly from one block and droped it into another, gaskets were the only thing new. I did it as an experiment of how far can you push the limits of low buck. It worked, engine didn't smoke, I raced it and won with it.

If you're gonna pull the engine down to gap the rings for boost, just gap, don't hone, the rings are already seated to that cylinder. Just be sure to tell your customer/friend it also might not work. You'll never KNOW till you try it.
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Lol! Thats awsome!
 
If this is a Magnum 5.2/5.9,expensive ring pack.Metric(smaller than 5/64 " rebuilder stuff.),Low tension oil ring,I.I.R.C.Smaller ,means more load for surface area Power adder,means more strain continously.If you were not throwing a blower on it,I would do it.What's your time worth to you?
 
I've pulled pistons, rings and rod from one engine and dropped them in a different one and had no problems but it was not a performance build, just a get by type build.Three original pistons had lost the skirt on the thrust side and I bought a junkyard engine for less than the price of one piston. I even used the bearing that was on the rod. I would not recommend it but sometimes you can get away with it.
 
If i was doing work for someone else, I would not put old crap back in. You'll do what he wants then when there are issues he will come crying back to you even though it was his choice. you'll end up looking like the bad guy in the end. just don't do it!
 
Sure I put together a used 318, used head gaskets, used rings, used shimmed bearings ect... The sucker ran great didn't leak a drop didn't burn oil. 6 pistons out of one engine 2 out of another (found ones that weighed almost the same) into a 3rd block. Honestly one of the best engines I have ever had.
 
well here is the story i got from him. the 318 is really a 5.2 in a 67 valiant 4 door!(can't wait to see it!!!) He is going to drag week with hot rod magazine. he doesn't have time to brake in a motor. so he wants to pop the pistons gap them reinstall and go. he wants to run low boost. turns out he has a pair of t4 turbos and will run them at 8PSI for drag week then rebuild it afterwards. I think if he can keep the boost low it might work. but he is doing it so we will see!!!!
 
If the rings are fresh i suppose its possible but if they've been run any ammount of time it'll smoke ALOT. Ive seen somebody try this before on a naturally aspirated engine smoked like crazy even at idle. If im reading this right theres going to be aturbo on it as well... thats alot of pressure on those rings
 
If your worried about them not seating just get some of that quick seat dry assembly film. its $20 and they will seat really fast because you rub it into the cylinder walls. it fills in the hone scratches so oil wont get in them for the first few seconds of running then assemble the pistons dry. and by the time oil is pumped up and splashed on the cylinder walls theyll be seated. Its good stuff
 
I can't help myself............now to throw some gas on this fire...........how many of you use rubber re-usable valve cover gaskets?.................how many of you use rubber re-usable oil pan gaskets?.............tranny pan gaskets?..........when you pull a plug to read, do you throw the set out, or do you save the set to use later after jettings set?

The re-use of an item is not bad; the degree some will go (myself included) is what is shocking; does it always work; no; does it always fail; no; new parts don't always work eather. It's all an excersise in learning.
 
Lets see here, lets re-use used rings that are questionable whether or not they'll seal if they were in a N/A engine then throw 8 lbs. of boost at it. Might as well not even try to seal the oil pan or valve covers cause I bet it'll have so much blow by no seals will last over a couple blocks.

And "don't have time to break in an engine"??? Tell him to use Moly rings as they seal almost immediately. I don't know where guys get this crap it takes forever to break in rings. Guess it's from the days when chrome rings were used a lot.

Rumble said it right when he said your bud will be a laughingstock and since he's going to HotRod drag week it might even get printed for the world to see... LOL
 
Chevy guys do it all the time when boosting the LS 4.8, 5.3, and 6.0 truck engines. A very common practice for those taking a junkyard truck engine and throwing a turbo on it. I do not see why you cannot do the same thing with a Magnum engine.

Looking forward to checking it out at Drag Week. Only 10 days left!! :cheers:
 
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