kz440 piston rings, top ring which direction?

I'm installing rings on a set of KZ440 pistons - the rings came on the pistons purchased from ebay. I took them off years ago and had the pistons cleaned. Finishing up the project now and putting the rings back on, but I'm not sure in which orientation to install the top ring. The oil ring is a no brainer, got that figured out. The other two rings don't match what is shown in the manual, which says the top ring is rectangular in section, and the second ring is tapered. What I have is a rectangular second ring and a rabbeted top ring, almost like a "lip" on the outer edge. The second ring is wider than the top and has the N mark, so I know which way is up. It also doesn't fit in the top groove so I'm pretty confident that is in the right place. The top ring, however, has no N mark, so not sure if this lip is supposed to go up or down, or if these are even the right rings. Thanks for any help!

Any pics of the top ring cross section shape would help.

Top ring with "lip"


Second ring for comparison:

I am a little clueless about your top ring shape. On 2 stroke engines the top ring is L shaped to catch the burned gas to get more pressure on the cylinder wall at the igniton stroke. Your top ring look like similar. Can you made some pics of the piston ring grooves?

No magic to them as far as I can tell. Top groove slightly narrower than second groove precluding the wider ring from fitting in it.



 

Intuitive i would say this is the best fit position for your top piston ring. An other position make no sence to me.
Maybe someone is more competent or has more technical experiance to enlight us all here.

 

Yeah that makes logical sense, to the put the lip toward the side with the pressure which would push the ring down and out, creating a better seal. Might just end up buying a ring kit and replacing them - would hate to have to tear it all apart again. Thanks for your help!

wrote:

No magic to them as far as I can tell. Top groove slightly narrower than second groove precluding the wider ring from fitting in it.

What did you do to those skirts?

What do you mean?

Keep the soda blaster away from machined surfaces.


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They weren’t soda blasted, but thanks for your concern.

Buy another set of piston rings.  That top piston ring should not be used, in the top groove.  It's not correct.  It looks like a scraper piston ring and that type of
piston ring should only be used in the second groove, with the "lip" facing DOWN. 

If you install it with the lip facing up, it will SCRAPE the cylinder walls and throw oil into the combustion chamber, and quickly foul the spark plugs.

Those piston rings are not factory Kawasaki parts.  Buy Kawasaki OEM piston rings, if you can.  And be sure to run a brush hone through the cylinders first.