A new attempt at making piston rings

[GreenTwin]

Those rings will last a very long time, and will hold up under load too.
Congrats. Very nice.
.

 

[Steamchick]

Well done Brian. An excellent result!
K2

 

[stevehuckss396]

As long as your bore still has a decent cross hatch that can retain a little lube, your rings will actually get a little better.

Congrats sir!

 

[stevehuckss396]

As long as

 

[GRAYHIL]

I have been reading your post with admiration for your perseverance and patience.
Congratulations
Grayhil

 

[Ghosty]

Brian,
Congrats on moving to cast iron rings, it sounds like it is running better than when it was running on an "o"ring
Again, great work to see it through, lots of info came forward as well.
Cheers
Andrew

 

[doc1955]

Way to stick with it Brian as you run it, it should get better and better congrats!

 

[Nerd1000]

Fantastic, I knew you could do it!

 

[Brian Rupnow]

This post is not so much about rings, but it does show something very important. I am always amazed at how much a difference in gas tank height affects an engine. When I built this engine a few years ago, I had made a gas tank to fit underneath the cylinder, with a 3/32" diameter check valve in the discharge. This year when I went to start it, I couldn't get it to draw fuel up from the tank. Okay, when these engines set around on the shelf for years, check valves have a tendency to freeze up. That wasn't a big deal, I just grabbed a spare gas tank I had and mounted it on a block of wood. This allowed me to start the engine and see that it actually did run. After putting the cast iron rings in, the engine would run good for four or five minutes and then die, as if it were running out of fuel. When everything else is set at "optimum" and the engine dies for no good reason, I always suspect the gas tank height. In this picture you see a 1.6" tall aluminum spacer under the tank. That fixed it!! Now the engine will run until I turn it off with the switch in the electrical system.

 

[Tim1974]

Nice work it’s been interesting reading with a good ending thanks for hanging in there and well dun

 

[ShopShoe]

Congratulations Brian. I am doing a mental happy dance for you this morning. I follow all your adventures and I have to say again that you get the stick-to-it-iveness award again for seeing this through.

Take a well-deserved break and be assured that I will be watching whatever you do next.

--ShopShoe

 

[Badhippie]

Brian
Nice job why to work through a problem

 

[Brian Rupnow]

-Every once in a while, I run into something that I don't think I'm going to be able to do.---and that worries the Hell out of me. I've always been the man who can do anything, and I hate to think that there is something that has defeated me. I'm happy that I was able to finally get some workable rings and a "process". Not bad for a "geezer". I'll be 75 this Wednesday.

 

[Gordon]

I am not sure that it is a "process". Looking at some of the replies it appears to be a religion or perhaps even more serious.

75 is not geezerhood. I will be 81 at the end of the month and I still learn new things. Well perhaps I am just relearning things that I forgot. I am finding it very easy to forget things. I can pick up a part, set it down and spend the next 15 minutes trying to remember where I set it down. That is frequently without even moving away from the spot.

 

[awake]

Well done and congratulations, Brian!

 

[oldengineguy]

Hey Brian .I turned 75 end of April and I am NOT a Geezer, Opinionated old fart yes but to be a Geezer youv'e got to be OLD. Great job on the rings by the way. You are an inspiration. Colin

 

[Bentwings]

Hi Brian,
I'm sorry I did not know you had no access to Trimble articles, so having a full copy of SIC I have copied all the article and put them on 2 PDFs for you.
Hope this helps you overcome your difficulties with the rings. Frances Washburn was suppling copies but the web site is not working so maybe she is no longer able to continue. If you have any questions give me a shout. Cheers John. These files are the basic Trimble method that I follow however the full Trimble description is more detailed in many issues. J.

EDIT: The "Strictly IC" article attachments had to be deleted as they are still under copyri8tht. The "Strictly IC" website is till active. The link to the back issue order form is:
http://www.strictlyic.com/b0_form.htmStaff HMEM

thank you I’ll have more reading material. Better than Netflix.
Model rings are quite different from full size top fuel engines. Even bore finish is different. A supercharged engine can lift the top of the piston off in a heart beat. Then burn the top of the aluminum rod ubtilit fails. Then you have a big mess. I’ve always been a fan of plenty of top ring clearance. We leak tested our engines years ago and found no real advantage in tight end gaps. Plenty of disadvantages. Our old Briggs engines had plenty of clearance too. Fuel spark and correct timing and they ran great. My current mower has got to be 20 yrs old still runs fine smokes a little but runs every time. .004” per inch of bore was good for about everything except blown top fuel. Then more was better.LOL
I think it was early 60’s when rings went to moly filled . That took care of most issues. My dodge diesel truck has 42k on it doesn’t use oil doesn’t smoke.but it’s diesel so much better lived. My Streetrod was super charged an tan fine after 34k miles. Never used oil it did have more top ring gap but never changed leak down or compression test. Got 15 mpg about as good as any unbloen cars I cruised with.

 

[johwen]

-Every once in a while, I run into something that I don't think I'm going to be able to do.---and that worries the Hell out of me. I've always been the man who can do anything, and I hate to think that there is something that has defeated me. I'm happy that I was able to finally get some workable rings and a "process". Not bad for a "geezer". I'll be 75 this Wednesday.

"Happy Birthday" Brian your now as young as you will ever be so have a great one. John

 

[Brian Rupnow]

And today we get to see how slow the engine will run. I've got about an hours continuous run time on it now, and as those cast iron rings "bed in" the compression gets higher and higher, and consequently the idle speed can become less and less. I'm pretty impressed with this.

 

[dsage]

YES. Very impressive low RPM running. Good work.