The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Which piston rings are better?

I have now torn down the engine. I found that this engine had a "Farmer John" overhaul done on it. (Nothing personal to farmers) A Farmer John overhaul is fine for a lightly worn engine by not for one this worn. Here is what I found.

The person responsible cut the ridge off the top and honed the crap out of the cylinders and put new rings in it. Nothing more. The STD sized cylinders had .008 to .009 taper. The pistons had a .030+ fit. The severely worn out rod bearings were re-used. Several of the rod bearings had copper showing. Also, you could actually look down the side of the piston and clearly see the top compression ring.

The engine parts are now at the machine shop. The block will very likely be pocked out to .030 over to clean it up. The crank rod journals will need to be ground to .030 under to remove the scoring caused by the work out bearings; the mains will be ground to .020 under. I am also having the non-261 (235) cylinder head in being worked over to include reconfiguring it to be a 261 cylinder head -- drilling the steam vents.

Leaving the rings along with this kind of piston fit and taper would have been devastating to this 261 engine block.

Thanks for all the comments
Walt Williams
La Verkin, UT