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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ Ring orientation

Posted by: tim_nd Jun 8 2012, 12:10 PM

1.8l engine with bigbore kit. Is there an up or down position for the piston rings? If so, what faces up?
Also, what should the gap be for these rings?

Posted by: Valy Jun 8 2012, 03:53 PM

one side of the ring should be marked with "TOP" for compression rings only.
Oil ring is symmetrical.
Check my rebuild thread in my signature for gaps. The stroke is irrelevant, just the diameter. You want the gap a bit bigger than the 94mm spec.

Posted by: tim_nd Jun 10 2012, 11:37 PM

My kit has 8 piston compression rings, all of which were not gapped, super glad I checked before installing!
Of the 8 rings, 4 were marked with a tiny "top". The others had no markings anywhere, including the oil rings. I found a lawnmower repair website, which showed some pictures of the orientation. The ring marked top, does go on top, which happens to have the inside bevel facing up. The 2nd compression ring has the inside bevel facing down. The oil rings are symmetric and doesn't matter.
I hope this website was correct, thanks again for the help. My car runs nice, and pulls pretty hard

Posted by: Jake Raby Jun 11 2012, 06:47 PM

You were assuming the rings were gapped? In engine building the only assumptions that are correct are those that assume that something isn't right. Assume nothing, quantify everything .

Posted by: euro911 Jun 11 2012, 07:15 PM

Attached Image

Also, don't forget the orientation of each ring (compass headings, if you will)

Install the top ring @ 1:00, 2nd ring @ 7:00, top oil ring @ 11:00 and bottom oil ring @ 5:00.

Posted by: a914622 Jun 11 2012, 09:44 PM

I have always put the champher to the top, But i just got a set of svx rings from Total seal and the top ring has no champher? I called and they said it can go in both ways.

I also check the ring inner dia against the piston ring seat dia. I got a set back in the day that was .010 smaller dia on the ring than the piston ring seat dia.

jcl