I have a 74 440, .030 over with a 4.15 Eagle crank, Manley rods and Ross pistons. I'm filing the Mahle rings to fit and making each ring fit each cylinder. The instructions state .004 end gap for a 4 inch bore for moderate performance and .0055 for street/drag racing. I filed the top rings to .020 and started filing the second rings. The tech sheet recommends a larger gap on the second rings, so I went with .024, which is in keeping with the .0055 street/drag racing spec. I went too far with 2 of the rings. Both measure .030, .006 larger than the others. The tech sheet shows the .030 number for drag nitrous apps. I may drag race the car, but I have no plans to run spray in this motor.
Whats the chance that the larger second ring gaps would be a problem? I pulled the 3000 mile engine to address an oil burning problem. I found the oil rings had no tension and the compression rings were worn enough to have end gaps in excess of .050. I performed cranking compression tests several times over the past few years trying to diagnose the oil burning, and the numbers were always in the 180 range and within 6% of each other. With worn rings, I would think those numbers are not bad. With that in mind, would wider gaps on the second ring matter much, if at all? I dont want to be a cheapskate here. If its suggested that I order 2 new rings to make all the end gaps consistant, I'll do it.

Nobody knows?
All the GEARHEADS on this forum and nobody knows about ring end gaps?

don't worry about the .030 gap on the second rings, they are a scraper ring to help control oil use so go for it. I have ran gaps that large by accident also No noticeable problems either

Thats good news. I dont build many engines or race much so I just didnt know. My laymans understanding has me thinking that the oil burning before teardown was primarily due to the weak oil rings rather than the wider than ideal compression ring gaps.

I didn't ask and you didn't say what tension oil rings your using and if your running a vacume pump or not? If your not running a good vacume pump DO NOT USE LOW TENSION OIL RINGS

Oh.... Sorry that I forgot!
Standard tension oil rings, factory style PCV system on LH valve cover with the hose to the base of the carb and a "return" hose from the RH valve cover to the air cleaner assembly. NO vacuum pump.
This is a 99% street motor, but has 2" TTI headers and a 2 1/2" exhaust system. MP '509 cam installed straight up. Edelbrock 84cc heads, Performer RPM intake and a BG 850 VS carb with 85/93 jets and a 3.5 power valve. Timing set to 16 degrees BTDC with advance limited to 31 degrees to avoid detonation.

when your going to great lengths to maske sue everything is just so with a build but something like this ring end gap mistake happens, you just have to ask yourself if you want to correct the mistake, or just forget about making the build as good as you can.
it's always easy for people with no vested interest to tell you what you might want to hear. in the end you have to trust your own instincts.
in the end, either the work is correct, or it's not. which one are you willing to accept.
if it were mine, or a customers engine, we'd correct the mistake. and another way to look at it, if we were building it for you and we told you we made a mistake on the rings, would you be okay with it? or would you "expect" us to correct it. if it's the latter of the two, think about it.

I posted the question here because It seems that right about the time I run into trouble, The shops are closed. I plan to call Hensley performance tomorrow to get Kens opinion as well as those from the people that responded here. He has been quite helpful in the past, and I bought the stroker kit from him as well as the new rings. I'll report back when I know more. Thanks.

I just spoke to Ken at Hensley. He agreed that the wider second ring gaps are not an ideal scenario. He also said that many "Off the shelf" rings may have the same size gaps as the ones I filed too big, but they would be sized the same throughout the entire set unlike mine where 6 are one size and 2 are larger. The advantages of file to fit sets are that they allow the builder to custom fit the rings to fit the bores. This is a practice that used to be referred to as "Blueprinting". He suggested that since I am taking the time to build this engine right, it makes sense to make everything consistant. He is going to look into finding a pair of replacement rings for me.

Ken and Dan summed it up pretty well.
It is your decision, and it won't blow up as is.
But for the small cost of a couple 2nd rings, fixing it will fullfill your original goal of buying file fit rings in the first place.

Interesting that your 3000 mile oil rings "had no tension". Did you do a pull test with the oil ring in the cylinder? Did they go from 20 lbs to 2 lbs ?

Sometimes you have to give the world some time to get to your post...

Regarding the oil rings...
I'm impressed with some questions from you guys! Quite a step up from the regular question and answer forum. More in depth for certain!
My machinist was the one that told me that the oil rings had no tension. He said that they just fell through the hole. I am not familiar with any sort of pull test. I'd certainly appreciate any advice here, because his assertion led me to believe that like the compression rings, the OIL rings should have a degree of expansion within the cylinder to resist oil from travelling up to the combustion chamber. He said that I had all the rings installed correctly, but what if he wasn't as familiar with Mopars OR custom engine builds as those on this forum? I want to put this motor together right and enjoy it. I am a gearhead, but I'd rather keep this motor IN the car for awhile.

The oil rings NOT mounted on te expanders will have almost or no tension by themselfs One way to check oil ring tension is to mount them (theoil expander and both rings on the pistons with no other rings and not connected to the rod, buy a fish scale and attach it to the wrist pin and slide the piston into the bore upside down all the way to the bottom of the bore so you can pull the piston out of the bore with the fish scale, watch the scale and see how much tension(in lbs) it takes to move the rings and pistons up the bore (Do several pistons in other bores also ) Let us know what you find out , if you do it BTW, it doesn't hurt to check the oil ring end gap also file as or if needed per the ring makers instruction BTW, rotate the block so the bores are parelel(SP?) to the floor so your not fighting gravity

Most everyone disagrees but i'll say it anyway .............why go larger on 2nd ring gap?.....if machine work is done correctly for the ring pack being used then blowby should be minimal ,excessive 2nd ring end gaps on street motors will have oil contaminated along with regular oil changes , the larger the 2nd ring end gap the wider the trail of oil entering top ring land through endgap , cast iron rings will expand @ a lesser rate than ductile/steel & will also be subjected to less heat , the iron ring will also wear @ a faster rate than steel , gapping bothe rings the same would end up with a larger 2nd end gap in a running engine....... take the gapless top ring for example , Total Seal say these type rings installed correctly have near on zero blowby , yet they recommend 2nd ring gap to be larger than top end gap , an example was a 4500 bore running nitrous (250 shot) , total seal recommended top ring end gap .007 X bore = .032" , 2nd gap .008 x bore= .036" , this was a street motor whereby engine oil was changed every 1000 miles due to contamination , i'm still baffled as to why Total Seal recommend such large 2nd end gaps considering blowby being near zero with these rings. , i asked the question directly to Total Seal on another forum & got no reply.