Hi all. I decided to pull apart a 440 I bought just to check clearances/ring gaps,ect.. and I have a couple questions. I do not know the history of this motor, aquired it as an assembeled short block. This will be in a street driven 69 GTX with a trip to the track once or twice a year. No nitrous. #1: What is an acceptable ring & piston to wall gap, and how to tell what kind of rings are in this thing? (has new coated hyperutectic pistons in it). #2: What are acceptable bearing clearances? #3: Bolt torque specs?(lost my book). Thanks to everyone for the help. Oops, forgot to mention this is a freshly rebuilt motor.

The ring gaps vary with manufacturer I think. The values are determined by a 'factor' which is multiplied by inches of bore size. X amount per inch of bore. X will be a bigger number for forced induction or nitrous use= bigger gap. On my 4.030 bore small block I think the top gaps on standard iron rings ended up around .015" but that's a wild guess my paperwork is not in front of me.

I do remember the first time I hand filed rings I misunderstood the directions and ended up with a proper gap for a top fuel blown application! Lucky for me I was able to order a set of just top rings from the manufacturer.

There are different opinions about the second ring gap- I would go with the factory recommendation unless you know something they don't.

Also remember too big might burn a little oil but too small can seize up and possibly rip the top of the piston off, especially with detonation or hyper pistons.

Also remember Im just some guy, not a pro or expert

Good luck!

hyperutectic pistons usually use alittle bigger gap.Use the spec that the piston company tells you.