If I had just remembered this stuff before I'd have had another
ten pages for my book. I used chrome rings in my TR-4 engines and
found that lapping them in first saved a lot of breaking time on the
dyno and always gave a higher power number and a lot less blowby and
early loss of pressure. My system is not fun to do but here is how I
did it successfully for lots of years & engines:
With the pistons you are going to use fit all the rings making sure to
already have the end gap checked. Fit the correct rod.
Then lay out four pans that will hold about a quart of your
favorite cleaning fluid. ( I used lacquer thinner cause it was there
and no one was lighting fires in the shop)
Mount the sleeve in a fixture to hold it .
(such as easy gripping in the vise)
Make up a thin paste of kerosene and Bon-Ami ( yup, the old time
cleaning powder) The paste should be about the consistency of cold 50
weight motor oil.
Apply a lite coating to the rings of the piston that matches the
sleeve in the vise, and a lite smear to the bore of the sleeve
Fit your ring compressor to the rings just as normal.
Fit the piston into the sleeve and give it ten strokes , one up and two
down and so on.
Remove the assembly from the sleeve, carefully remove the compressor and
ABOVE ALL, DO NOT TAKE ANY OF THE RINGS OFF THE PISTON. DO NOT DISTURB
THE RINGS.
In the first pan of cleaner use a small paint brush to start
cleaning the paste off the piston and the rings. After the worst is
removed go to the second pan, DO NOT TRY TO MOVE THE RINGS. Work with
a brush again to clear the paste residue.
Now go to the third pan and very carefully by gripping the ring
away from the ends move it slightly and a little more and a little
with the head of the piston submerged in the liquid more until the
ring is free to turn easily. Do one ring at a time, this is not the
time to be lazy.
On the last pan of fresh cleaner. Move the rings as above several
rotations on the pistons making sure there is no gritty feeling.
Now that the pain part is over, wash in hot soapy water and blow
dry and immediately coat with WD-40 or similar type oil. Do not try to
remove or bend the rings or pull on the ends.
You will see a fine grey line on the top edge of the rings showing that
they indeed are lapped into the bore. Not only that the rings are ROUND.
(keeping them round after the lapping is why you don't want to carelessly
try to move them too soon while cleaning.)
Wash the sleeve in the same manner, you can eliminate a couple of
the cleaning steps as there is no finesse involved,. Finish though
with soapy water and blow dry and coat with lite oil. Both the piston
assembly and the sleeve should be immediately put into a plastic bag
or sack to keep clean and dust free until time of assembly. Remember
each piston has it's own sleeve and should not be changed out to
another part.
Clean the ring compressor some before starting on the second piston
assembly.
When fitting to the engine just a lite oil on the rings and bore, finish
up and stand on the gas after about four or five minutes.
Done in this manner my rings lasted longer than any other method and
gave the best perforce all round.
I did make up a torquing plate for the dry blocks and did everything in
much the same manner. My torquing plate was made of 1" thick mild steel.
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