I was talking to my friend Ray Akerly, the ring guru and namesake of Akerly & Childs Rings, about some of our experiences over the years. I was telling Ray about the first engine I built. I had been selling high performance add-ons for a few years and finally had an opportunity to build an engine when the 260 in my 63.5 Falcon Futura Sprint took a crap. I was getting water in the oil, as I explained to my wife, and I NEEDED to replace the engine.
I wanted to upgrade to a 302. No strokers available in those days. But all that is for another blog day.
I started to build the short block and progressed to file fitting the SpeedPro file-to-fit moly rings to go with the forged TRW flat top pistons. First, I fit one of the top rings in the bore to get an idea of how much I needed to file. Then I very carefully took a few swipes with my flat file making sure to swipe equally on each face and only swipe in one direction, towards the inside, and counting each swipe. After a few swipes I refit the ring in the bore and checked the ring gap. No change. So I swiped several more times again counting the swipes and after refitting in the bore noticed a small change in the end gap. Mathematically I figured how many swipes I would need to make to get close to where I needed to be and swiped away on the rest of the rings. I did good as each top ring was very close to where it needed to be and a few more swipes got them all correct.
When I put the first of the second groove rings in the bore I was shocked to see that it was already way too wide a gap. I didn't take into consideration that the second rings, being of a softer material, would file much easier and more meat would be removed with each swipe. I had to order another set of second rings and do them all from the beginning.
I learned a good lesson that day. Ray told me that it happens pretty often. He regularly gets the call for "one" second ring cause the guy filed too much, lol! He told me that a good thing to do is file the second rings FIRST and you'll never go wrong.
Have you got a ring story to share?
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I have worked in the high performance parts industry since 1968. During that time I have made numerous contacts with wholesalers and manufacturers who, from time to time, have large quantities of good quality merchandise available at way below the normal pricing. I am pleased to be able to offer you some of those items. While viewing my blog I hope that you are amused with some of the things that have happened over the years. Please leave a comment.
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