I recently purchased a set of 1.7 Liter pistons and cylinders for my 72 914 Porsche from AA performance. I noticed that the rings are installed and the pistons are in the cylinders. Is it necessary to remove the pistons to configure the ring spacing or is it already done? Can anyonre tell me how they spaced the ring gaps around the piston? In the old days compression and oil ring gap would be alternating in the 9 and 3 o'clock position.thanks

Ummmm........maybe it's just me but I think you are going to have to pull them out to assemble the engine...right?? You can then set them however you wish....

Ummmm........It's just you. The pistons stay in the cylinder and slide onto the head bolts. The piston protrude out the bottom of the cylinder just far enough to install the wrist pin then the cylinders slide down and seat in the case.

I would take them apart and verify ring end clearance, then you could orient where the gaps end up when you put them back together.
My AA set (96 mm) didn't have the rings installed when I bought them.

Either way, ring end clearance is critical. I would check.

Also, its best to disassemble the kit and make sure everything is completely clean. Then you know it is right, and there are no metal shavings..

Absolutely! Some guy in a factory thousands of miles away doesn't really care about your car. You do. You owe it to yourself to make sure the ring gaps are OK and the parts are clean so you don't wind up with a dead motor the third time you fire it up.

--DD

Good call to do a dis assembly. Make sure everything is OK. What configuration do you guys use? As I said before I used to set the ring gaps alternating at 9 and 3 o'clock. No gaps below so standing oil wouldn't leak through when the engine is off.

Can you really expect rings to stay oriented the way they were installed? My other flat engine (a Subaru) goes through oil like mad sometimes, then seems to hold it OK sometimes. I always thought it was the rings getting oriented with the gaps down sometimes.

I'm not sure. With VWs we would keep the rings in the upper half of the cylinder and would not have issues with oil burning. If on occasion the ring gaps were down it seemed to use more oil. It would seem that the rings are going to stay in the orientation that they start. There is no force that would make them spin.