Ring gap question

Think how much easier it would be starting the piston into the sleeve if the top ring wasn't installed on the piston, whereby the piston could more easily align itself upon entering the sleeve, without simultaneously contending with compression and alignment of the ring.

With the ring installed, leaving slight exposure of the land above the compressed ring should allow the land to barely enter and align the piston within the sleeve just before the ring meets the sleeve. Actually, before the clamp meets the sleeve. In other words, have the clamp over just the ring only and not high enough to partially cover the land.

If Larry says differently, go by what he says.

Good Fortune!

I used a popsicle stick to push the ring end so I wouldn't scar the rings any. You don't need a ring compressor as the bottom of the cylinder has the taper, so the rings actually funnel themselves in to they cylinder. I just did my KZ about a month and a half back. I had a valve job done at Pit Stop in Florida and put it back together. I am 50 years old and been building car engines since I was about 16. Definitely need a ring compressor for the car engines, but like I said on the bike the rings just funnel into the bottom taper of the bore. Just lube the rings and the cylinder. I prefer to use auto trans fluid in the cylinder. I put a little WD40 in the spark plug holes before I fired it up and left them out, kicked it over a few times. Installed spark plugs and she fired right up. I think Joe at Pit Stop recommends using WD40 also. Just sold my bike and in process of building up a 383 sbc (525-550 HP)now. Good luck with it.

i use alluminium tuning fork dealie bob's that i hold the center two pistons up with and it also squares them up then i install the block down on them working the rings into the block evenly one ring at a time and one piston at a time going back and forth between them evenly until the rings and pistons are up in the cylinder enough to allow getting started on the outside pistons then work back and forth between those. don't use hammers and if it doesn't go easy then don't force it take your time if it feels tight you may have snagged a ring so be careful. to get the rings into the blocks i like to use chop sticks to push the rings into place, chop sticks are hard and won't break up like pine or spruce sticks.. i dont like using screwdrivers or picks because because you can nick the face of the rings. i dont go crazy with the lube in fact most times i will install the rings dry or with at most a light coating of wd-40 to ease breakin.some people won't agree with this but i have built a lot of engines and have never had one fail because of bad ring seating.

I did cut some wooden supports to hold the two pistons from moving. Kinda like the shape of your tuning forks. Like above poster says just walk one side and one ring in at a time. The weight of the cylinder along with a little pressure they will go right in. As my above post says and also the above poster is to use WD-40 or auto trans fluid. I don't like to use motor oil. Found out about 20-25 years back that it seemed like the rings seated faster using the ATF fluid.

I cut some wooden supports to the dimensions given in my shop manual. I'll find out tomorrow if they help. Haven't decided if I'm just going to use my fingers to compress the rings, or if I'll make a compressor out of plastic and a cable tie.

Either way, I'll take pics and report how it goes.

Hi, I'm getting ready to install mine as well. I want to make a set of wooden supports using the shop dimensions
1/2 x 1 1/4 x 4in but it does not say how thick the wood is or wide. Anybody no how thick the wood is and the width?

Okay I think I understand now.

I made some wooden supports but I made them a little bigger. First I made them out of paper and they seems pretty small. So I used 3/4 in thick ply wood 2" inch wide and 5" inches long, cut the same 1/2 grove down the middle. Then I covered them in wood glue so little pieces of wood does not fall in the engine case. Going to try later today to install.

KZ1100 Bully,

They are 1/2" thick, 1 1/4" wide, and 4" long. The ones that I made are 5/8" thick because I some scrap wood that was that thick. I cut mine 6" long.

I just got done installing my cylinder and the supports worked great!

Great job fordtruck, I got mine installed as well today. Just want to say thanks to all the guys for the help. Feels really great to get the old girl back together. So happy:cheer:

Love this place!!!

KZ1100 Bully wrote:

Great job fordtruck, I got mine installed as well today. Just want to say thanks to all the guys for the help. Feels really great to get the old girl back together. So happy:cheer:

Love this place!!!

I feel the same way. I felt a lot more comfortable tearing into my engine knowing that I could get great advice and tips from this site.