Do you get what you pay for with rings? I've always used the $35 Hastings/Sealed Power/Childs Alberts rings. I'm considering the $90 Speed Pro's for my 383 build. Is the extra expense worth it?

I used the $90.00 speed pro plasma moly rings in my BBC and they took longer to seat than i expected and smoked for a while which scared me.

They took approx 1k miles to seat which my machinest said was normal for these rings. He said this is because they are made from a plasma moly process that makes them a very hard material ring that can withstand detination/extreeme conditions better than std rings but makes them take longer to seat according to my machinest. MY motor smoked (just a little) untill i got apporx 400 miles on it but still used some oil (with little to no smoking) up untill it hit 1k miles where the rings really settled in/seated. I was also told by other people that these rings can take as many as 1500-2k miles to seat in some applications so keep all this in mind while making your ring type decision.

My machinest feels they are worth the extra money in a fairly high compression perf motor or one that could see nitrious or a blower where detenation is a real possibility due to today's crappy fuel quality.

If your going to run a fairly mild 9:0-9:5:1 comp motor i would not worry about it and would run the std rings your used too . But, if your running a fairly hot to wild setup with high compression along with NO2,blower,etc i would think $40.00 more for rings is not that much to spend for some added strength/insurance. This is so you don't break/crack rings (possibly leading to other problems/damage) in your new $3k-$4k motor investment if you accidetially hit a detenation problem due to poor fuel and or tuning issues while breaking in and or dialing in your new motor setup.

I would take his advice and spend the xtra $40-$50.00 on what your machinest say's are the higher quality rings. And then, if there are any ring issues not seating and or breaking etc in the future with the new motor your machinest can't come back and say i told you to use the more expensive speed pro rings and put you off. You would then be in a better position to get some cooperation from your machinest in a case like that if you followed his advice which in IMHO think is reaosnable.

Good luck....Scott

Interesting, I'm probably wrong but I was under impression that moly rings seat very fast. Usually before the cam break-in is finished. The Speed-Pro plasma-moly rings I'm using seemed to have seated before the first pass (no street time at all, just cam break-in).

I've also had good luck with the $90 Speed Pro ductile moly rings seating right away. IMO and experience, rings should seat within 50 miles. If more time is needed, it can typically be traced to poor bore prep.

Many don't realize what is necessary to properly clean the bores prior to assembly. A final trip through the hot tank or jet cleaner is not enough.

I soak the bores one at a time with WD-40 and scrub them out with a white cotton rag. This process pulls the residual metal particles left behind from the honing process. Lacquer thinner will not work because it just moves the material around.

Scrub each bore several times until you can spray and wipe without leaving any gray material on your white cloth. I've spent up to 15 minutes per bore to get it right.

Before I learned this process, my motors would smoke until they had a thousand or so miles on them, and always used a quart of oil every 2 or 3 thousand miles.

On my last engine, I implemented David Vizards recommendation; lightly scrubbing the bores with WD-40 and scotch-brite to remove the sharp peaks left behind from the honing process. I followed with the cleaning procedure mentioned above.

Like Pat Kelley suggested, I believe the rings were seated by the time the cam was broken in, or shortly thereafter.

Except for #7 which is pumping oil for some yet to be determined reason, likely a mistake made by me during assembly :( But that's a different story.

Pat/RoadKnee,thanks for info on the speedpro plasma moly rings. I did clean the bores prior to assembly with a couple cans of brakleen and a clean rags to what i thought was clean enough. But maybe they were not clean enough or possibly the machinest used a worn cylender hone or did not do a good job preping the bores,i guess i will never know at this point.

I am runnig a fairly mild cam that pulls approx 15 inch vac @ idle and the exhaust never seemd to smell rich at startup & during cam breakin so i don't think there was a fuel wash problem either.

The cam i ran prior to rbld was hotter and only had 12 inch vac @ idle and there was NOT a rich situation then (with lower idle vac) due to the carb power circut comming in too early with lower idle vacuum.

So i would have to say again that my rings not seating faster was likely due to either me not cleaning the bores clean enough with 2 cans of brakleen & clean rags or that the bores were not preped/honed properly at the shop.

I ran a comp test and am seeing approx 205-210 psi per cylender which leads me to believe the rings seated ok. Or at least the compression rings seated ok and maybe the oil rings did not seat properly or as well as they should have.

I am also running speedpro forged pistons(L2240NF30's)that are approx 9:6-9:7:1 compression
with my 063 100cc chambered large oval port heads.

After spending 3600-4k on this motor i hope it does not use much oil though it stop smoking at this point. I guess when i get time to put more miles on it next season i will get the answer to that question. I have a feeling even though the smoking has stopped it may still use some oil.

I can live with it if it gets more than approx
1200-1500 miles per qt of oil,doesnt smoke,and stays at that lvl for yr's to come. But any less than that will really bother me and may negate another teardown for a re-hone & re-ring to fix it. (BLAH) The only positive thing i could say about having to re-ring it again is i could fix the rear oil galley plug that has a small seappage/drip,possibly step up to a little more cam,and re-check the torque on the mains/rods while the pan was off.

I could also place a small thin shim/washer or 2 behind the oil pump relief spring for a few more lbs oil pressure. I currently run 58 psi cold at 2k rpms and 48 psi hot @ 2k rpms/36 @ 900 rpm idle. I know these are not bad #'s but i would like to see approx 55 psi hot @ 2k rpms. I did not use the optional spring im my Melling m77 ppump because Melling told me increases the oil psi to approx 75-80 cold and 65-70 hot which is really not needed for my 5600 rpm motor which would waste power to run the extra oil pressure i don't need.

OOPPSS,sorry for rambling on with all this motor head stuff,i have nowhere else to talk about it so i guess you guy's got stuck hearing it.

Scott

All of the above posts are correct. Moly rings will seat very quickly, IF the cylinders are prepped correctly. My recommended procedure for performance usage is to always use torque plates during all bore and hone operations. Use the same length fasteners (bolts or studs) to attach the plate to the deck surface. This will necessitate spacers and takes a lot more time, but it is important. Final hone should be a plateau hone, using Sunnen-type plateau stones (cork/brushes) or a fine grit dingle-berry brush.
Then clean the bores with HOT soapy water and rinse with HOT water. Wipe the cylinders until they do not show any residue on a white lint-free cloth. Apply clean 30# oil to the bores and cover the engine totally with a thrash bag and tie it closed. Put plenty of oil in the ring grooves and install the rings with a RING EXPANDER. Do not spiral the rings in place, this will cause conformibility problems. Use a good ring compressor - I use the taper style and make sure that all of the gaps are lined up correctly, per manufacturers recommendations. Like Pat said, moly rings should be seated long before the cam is broken in.
There is a difference between "economy" ring sets and good performace parts. The good ring sets have ductile iron or steel plasma-moly top rings. The ductile iron or steel will hold up much better than cast iron, when exposed to nitrous, high compression and/or detonation. Performance sets also usually will have a reverse twist, taper-face second ring which has much better oil control than the barrel-face ring found in many economy sets.