I'm old now and can't fight as well as I could when I was young, but it would take somebody like Ali in his prime to make me ever put another top chrome ring in anything. And he would have his work cut out for him. Cast rings are very good for a 235. They begin breaking in when you start running the engine (if your machinist knew what he was doing when he honed your cylinders). Talk to Jerry about that...he knows it chapter and verse. I've never had good results using chrome rings...and I tried them in many engines in the 60s and 70s. Everyone thought these were the answer. Also, find a machinist who can and will bore your cylinders correctly. To do this correctly each piston must be bored and marked for each cylinder...and please use the GM specs for both piston clearance and ring gap. Once again Jerry has forgotten more about this than many people have ever learned. I've seen some engines that were bored so incorrectly they were going to run like an engine with over 25,000 miles on it right from the start. Another thing is your crankshaft. Have it ground by somebody who knows EXACTLY what they're doing. Mistakes are very bad and expensive to fix. The 235 is ok at .020 over. At .030 over...well you can do it, but you won't find too many people getting on that bandwagon. You'll find those crankshafts being used to hold up mailboxes on farm to market roads. If you get your crankshaft ground so that your main and rod bearings run at the lowest end of the GM specs, you'll be a much happier guy. Good luck!
