piston ring question

Yankee Transplant · May 6, 2015

I rebuilt a 305 a few months ago and Ive had problems with it since day one .. it was a reman engine from one of the parts house , (so I was told ) but my question is,.,. has any one used a ring that was square , with no bevel on it for the top ring ..no dot either ,, and the second groove has a dot and a bevel on the bottom of the ring ... .I put it in like the paper said ,, and its been smoking like a tar pit none stop ..... I have only built around 10 or 12 engines in the past 40 years so Im no expert ... I dont remember the manufacture of my parts .. I bought them from a man who builds race cars for a living (he orders a lot from summit)

I took the engine back apart last night and tonight ... Im going back to him and ask him to order me the old style rings . (top ring bevel inside top ) I have also had problems with the ideling with this truck ,, just like it has not enough power to run ,,, when you rev it up it runs strong and smooth .. ideling ruff and goes dead ...
sorry about such a big story .. its just aggravating when the problem is not obvious to me ...

junker39 · May 7, 2015

I've run into that type ring before. Didn't have any problems with them sealing. Something you may look at though, is the oil rings. If the rings themselves or the expander behind the rings, are not positioned correctly within each other, it may not get the correct tension on the rings, to keep the oil where it belongs. And double check the end gap on the top and mid rings. Too much gap indicates the wrong size for the bore. And that could cause weak pressure pushing against the cylinder walls. Good luck with it.
And as for the running poorly a low rpms, double check your timing.

RPM · May 7, 2015

What about cylinder wall size and finish? Was this block bored, or just honed? Was it honed correctly? Are the pistons new or used? Lots of questions.

21willys · May 7, 2015

What about the heads? Lots of things can cause it to burn oil.

Yankee Transplant · May 7, 2015

I called myself (freshening ) the engine up .. after I took it apart all the bearings didnt even have ware to them ,, I was told the engine wasnt that old , but had been sitting up ,, anyway . I ordered the rebuild kit and stuck it in .. I have a little hone you stick on a drill .. I spun it in the cylinders like I have done my other engines and I didnt think it would be a problem .. this race engine builder said it could be that it needs to be machine honed .. he said the walls may be to slick to set the rings .. I have the engine apart all but the cam and gears that will come out tomorrow night .. I just got back in the house ..as of Last night I was doing the in-frame job , then today I talked to the mechanic and he said bring him the block and he would take it to a shop to get it honed ..its been bored 40 over the cylinder walls are slick . so maybe thats some of my problem .. (I hope all my problems) I dont know anything else about the engine other than its a reman that a fellow bought and stuck in his truck then the trans went out a little later .. and never got around to fixing it ..

junker39 · May 9, 2015

YT, I hope you get it lined out. Years ago, I built a 428 CobraJet and used SpeedPro chrome rings. I couldn't ever get those things to seat. Then one day an old racing friend, of my brothers', came by with a can of BonAmi silverware polish. He said "fire it up. I'll fix it." I did and he did. He retarded the heck out of the timing, let the fresh build get to about 200 degrees, then rev'd it to about 3,500 and sprinkled about a third of that can of BonAmi down the carb. Real slow like. Then turned the timing back up and told me to go run the crap out of it. I did and it never used another drop of oil. That motor made a bunch of 11.5 passes. Never missed a beat 'til my buddy shifted to neutral instead of 2nd at 6 grand. Put a rod thru the intake. Wasn't a fun day. Later.

Yankee Transplant · May 10, 2015

thanks junker .. I'll try what this mechanic says and we will see .. I done took the tranny to a fella to over hall it .. see ing it was on the floor and been sitting for a few years .. this way all will be new going back in so maybe I can run it this time .. .My 350 I have in my 31 chevy was tacked out to the limit for about 4 or 5 seconds .. it seemed like a minute or two at the time it happen.. I had a buddy come by just after I built the motor and the 4 barrel wasnt kicking in just right .. it was a carter carb ... he said fire it up so I did .. we both were standing beside the truck .he flipped the gas feed and the shaft on the butterfly was bradded on the end and it came un-bradded that motor when wide open.. it felt like it took me 5 minutes to get back to the key .. and when it finally shut down it blew the muffler out like a basketball .. but that tested the motor any way ,, all is good. Didnt sling nothing out ,, I was very happy about that ..