Nothing on the rings. Ever.

Wipe the bores with a white lint free cloth and Marvels Mystery oil, ATF or even WD-40 until the cloth comes out clean. Then put NOTHING on the cylinder walls unless you are using Total Seal’s powder or paste or whatever it is.

Then you use a QUALITY assembly lube and just put a light coating on the skirts. Real light. It should just cover the skirts and that’s it.

As you assemble the short block, you will notice that the lube on the skirts will migrate all around the bores, the rings will be LIGHTLY lubricated by that and there isn’t a bunch of oil loaded behind the rings. The engine will fire quickly, won’t smoke and the rings will be 99% seated before the engine runs 5 seconds.

You can see this on the dyno. Instead of the first 10-12 pulls showing big power gains as the rings come in, the power will be relatively stable as you begin your dyno work.

I use Torco assembly lube for everything. I never use oil. There is a separate cam lube and engine assembly lube. I don’t like assembly lubes that look like grease or pastes except for flat tappets.