Dykes Rings question

Posted By: cloneguy

Dykes Rings question - 01/27/11 09:04 PM

I have a customer who has me building a hemi for the street. He has cobbled together a bunch of parts including a pretty nice set of Venolia 11:1 pistons that were made with a top grove for a Dykes 017 Ring.

I haven't been able to find the Dykes rings for less than a lot of money and the customer wants me to substitue with a standard ring.

This is just a pump gas, naturally aspirated engine. Is it possible to substitute a standard ring and if so, does anyone know what size?

Thanks,

Tim

Posted By: marvo451

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/27/11 09:49 PM

A Dykes ring in a street car probably isn't a very good idea. Also, you can't substitute another ring without re-machining the piston ring grooves. A Dykes ring is "L" shaped.

Posted By: W.I.N. Racing

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 02:07 AM

This may make me seem like an A$$ but if you dont know the design properties and application uses of a Dykes ring vs. a std ring, you have no business building a Hemi. There are other aspects of Hemi assembly (set up) that need consideration that are'nt as baisic as ring type.

Posted By: Cab_Burge

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 05:59 AM

Quote:

I have a customer who has me building a hemi for the street. He has cobbled together a bunch of parts including a pretty nice set of Venolia 11:1 pistons that were made with a top grove for a Dykes 017 Ring.

I haven't been able to find the Dykes rings for less than a lot of money and the customer wants me to substitue with a standard ring.

This is just a pump gas, naturally aspirated engine. Is it possible to substitute a standard ring and if so, does anyone know what size?

Thanks,

Tim

send the pistons back to Venolia (after you call them and get approval and prices and time frame) and have them recut the ringlands for a street freindly ring combination, you might want to buy the rings from them also

Posted By: liteweight

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 06:15 AM

If this is a cobbled together motor that he wants to run on the street, then the 11:1 on a steel headed motor is going to rattle itself to death.Between the Dykes ringlands, which should never be used for street applications, unless he wants to replace them on a regular basis, & the amount of squeeze, he's better off with a set of street slugs in the 9:5-10:1 zone. Lots of stuff on ebay if your patient.

Liteweight
Daryl

Posted By: Cab_Burge

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 07:28 AM

Quote:

I have a customer who has me building a hemi for the street. He has cobbled together a bunch of parts including a pretty nice set of Venolia 11:1 pistons that were made with a top grove for a Dykes 017 Ring.

I haven't been able to find the Dykes rings for less than a lot of money and the customer wants me to substitue with a standard ring.

This is just a pump gas, naturally aspirated engine. Is it possible to substitute a standard ring and if so, does anyone know what size?

Thanks,

Tim

The only way you will really know the true compression ratio of those pistons is assemble one rod and piston, stick it on the crankshaft and pour a cylinder(to figure the dome volume in CC) with the dome lower than the deck. Make sure and measure how far down on the stroke you go to to get the dome below the deck( I like and use -.050 usually

) and then figure the volume for the stroke used to get the piston down below the deck. Subtract the actual volume from the claculted volume and that will be your dome volume

do the rst of the math to figure the true compression ratio

I have seen 10.25 to 1 comp. ratio advertised piston actually measure out to have 9.2 to 1 and some just the opposite, 10.25 to 1 be 11.7 to 1

Let us know what you decide to do, BTW welcome to the freindlly Mopar jungle

Posted By: dOoC

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 07:37 AM

Quite frankly ...I like dykes rings. The first aftermarket-piston motor I ever build had those rings ....

That thing ran BIG MPH ...for what is was .... a small Racer Brown cam, JUNK heads, spinning the tires - through the muffs ... 11.86 ...119.90 mph.

Posted By: 23T Hemmee

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 05:02 PM

A point to consider, if these pistons have an .017 top ring, then they are more than likely a blown alky piston. The old NASCAR, Pro Stock and most custom N/A pistons used the .031 dykes which were available in double moly versions. I've only seen the .017 in stainless and tool steel but a moly version may be available. The blower piston has a full skirt which would lend itself well to street use and there is enough meat in the dome to lathe it down to get whatever compression you wanted and still have a decent piston crown. Yes, the dykes is not the optimum for street use but unless you're building a 100,000 mile engine, you can definitely get a couple of years of use out of them, depending on whether your customer wants the build for occasional use or a daily driver. The costs of sending the pistons back to Venolia to have the lands recut would probably be more than the increased cost of the rings, and unless things have changed drastically, their customer service for jobs like this is in the "zip" "nada" range. Just my personal experience, I'm sure others speak glowingly of them......

Posted By: 3ddart

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 05:20 PM

another option on recutting the ring lands is to contact rebco machine inc. in augusta, kansas at 316/775/6308. that was who i had do mine as they originally had dykes ring and my car is mainly a street car. dave

Posted By: 440Jim

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/28/11 07:30 PM

Quote:

Also, you can't substitute another ring without re-machining the piston ring grooves. A Dykes ring is "L" shaped.

Yep,

Posted By: RUNCHARGER

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/29/11 02:03 AM

I put about 50,000 street miles on a couple of dykes equipped Hemis between 1980 and 2005. They are not unstreetable at all. The engines put out excellent power and didn't noticeably smoke. I would run them again in a heartbeat. How many miles is the customer going to put on this engine 100,000? I personally think proper valveseals and guide clearance is more of an issue than running dykes rings on a Street Hemi.

Sheldon

Posted By: sturmenater

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/29/11 02:07 AM

Quote:

Quite frankly ...I like dykes rings. The first aftermarket-piston motor I ever build had those rings ....

That thing ran BIG MPH ...for what is was .... a small Racer Brown cam, JUNK heads, spinning the tires - through the muffs ... 11.86 ...119.90 mph.

I tried to like dykes too but they never liked me back said they only liked other women

Posted By: dOoC

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/29/11 02:27 AM

Quote:

I put about 50,000 street miles on a couple of dykes equipped Hemis between 1980 and 2005. They are not unstreetable at all. The engines put out excellent power and didn't noticeably smoke. I would run them again in a heartbeat. How many miles is the customer going to put on this engine 100,000? I personally think proper valveseals and guide clearance is more of an issue than running dykes rings on a Street Hemi.

Sheldon

Did you ever check to see hom much the ring-end-gap grew?

I got a puff-O-smoke as I hit the throttle .. but then it was as clean as a

Posted By: dOoC

Re: Dykes Rings question - 01/29/11 02:34 AM

Quote:

I tried to like dykes too but they never liked me back said they only liked other women

ONLY a twisted-guy would have picked-up on something like that !

WHAT you have to get THEN is some LIPstick to put on those rings .. to make them more attractive !

Posted By: cloneguy

Re: Dykes Rings question - 02/02/11 10:40 PM

Quote:

This may make me seem like an A$$ but if you dont know the design properties and application uses of a Dykes ring vs. a std ring, you have no business building a Hemi. There are other aspects of Hemi assembly (set up) that need consideration that are'nt as baisic as ring type.

Thanks to everyone for the information. And, I don't think you are an A$$ any more than anyone else from NY.

For the record, I've built quite a few engines in my 30 year career although pretty much all for the street. They include the 1,000 HP, blown, 572 inch, BME aluminum rod, pump gas street hemi in the streetrod in my icon (this will give people a chance to talk about how you can't use aluminum rods on the street) and a 900 HP, 572 inch, 12.5:1, pump gas street hemi with a proprietary cam grind (this is so you can talk about how you can't use high compression with pump gas). None of the others are as interesting although I do have a 1,000 hp twin turbo injected SB Chivy engine in the hopper.

But alas, I had never seen or heard of Dykes rings. It seems I learn something new every day.

And, I'm going to go the route of having the pistons recut.

Thank you all very much!