what im hearing is that they show a leakdown of less than 2%, but they pull oil past the exhaust valve seals. i have also read that they break, if they get too hot. the supposedely also cause top ring flutter

it doesnt seem that blow-by is the issue.

i am truly on the fence

 

Blowby is bad no matter which way you slice it. Not something that you build into a motor...... quite the opposite actually.

Are those the total seal rings? Somehow, excessive oil consumption with those seems counter-intuitive.... are the oil control rings just poor quality???

 

yes they are total seals. people are saying that the increased vacuum pulls oil past the exhaust valve seals. also that the thin part of the gapless ring is brittle and that they need a perfect cylinder wall. that the pressure b/w the gapless second an top conventional ring causes top ring flutter

but there are just as many good reviews, i dont know... have you ever used them?

 

ok, im very close to sending them back for a set of plasma-moly rings

 

I installed them in a 600+ horsepower 440, but, didn't get a chance to do any long term testing, as the car got totaled four DAYS after it was finished........ Put 'em in a 73 Vette motor, and never had any complaints..... (but, I never saw the customer again either...... so, take that for what its worth.)

Since you are doing the install on fresh cylinder walls...... they are prolly going to be as close to 'perfect' as it gets.

How much of a difference will they make in power/longevity? Don't know.

 

as much as id like to go gapless, and come back with raving reviews, i think this is just one of those situations where i need to go with something that i know will work.

reading the many reviews on them, they seem to be for whatever reason a 100% hit or miss component. you love em or absolutely hate em. and if i "miss" and have to pull the engine and tear it back down, ill be very UNHAPPY, to say the least.

im going to send back the gapless ringset in favor of a conventional plasma-moly set.

 

I would be interested to know what the failure rate is, what just WHY some of them failed....... Gonna have to do a bit of research, and see what I can come up with.

Going with something that you KNOW works really isn't a bad plan. I seriously doubt you will notice the performance difference with just swapping rings.

 

some people swear by 'em- less than 2% leakdown, almost 0 blow-by, cleaner oil, more power.

others HATE em- brittle, need to be fully warmed up before operating above idle, cause top ring flutter, high oil consumption, cylinder wall scarring

conventional rings have been tried and tested for decades, and i really am not willing to take the risk

 

Ok, after doing a bit of research, the general consensus I get is: For a street motor, you don't really need 'em. Numbers I have found showed an 8 to 10 horsepower increase on large cube motors, which equates to about 1-4% power increase. If you were building an all-out race engine, where every little bit counts, that would be an easy place to get a few more ponies. For a truck motor though? Nah. Not worth it.

I think a lot of the problems that have been encountered with them though are from using the wrong rings for the application, or, a screw up on installation. Some of the older info I found on them were the gapless second ring..... which to me, doesn't really make sense, a gapless TOP ring is where you want to be.

 

ok thanks for doing some digging for me

now... summit BETTER take these as a return!