4.375 bore 440 piston ring choice

I am going to re ring my 540- I gapped for a bunch of nitrous and now it has blow by- too much blow by.

My trans wont hold the nitrous power anyways and the motor is out- re ring it is. What is a good set of rings? I have been running total seal- should i stay and get something else? NA motor, no power adders.... okay maybe 200 HP of nitrous down the road. LOL.

Thanks in advance

Call total Seal, Hastings, Icon and Perfect Circle and ask them what they want you to use on your deal and go from their
I'm in the middle of assembling a 572 wedge(1000+HP on engine only ) with around 400 HP+ of NOS with 14.2 to 1 compression) I'm planning on using E85, I bought the piston and rings from Icon after discussing this build with Glen (775-882-7790 ext. 159) at their tech center

I would get the new Total seal rings that have gas port cuts in them , unless your pistons already have gas ports LOL

4.375 is a common Chevy size so there should be plenty of choices.

ok, new twist...





what now?

5 thousandths wont clean this up... i doubt 10 would fix it. what do i do now?

Sleeve time?

As far as rings I have been running Total Seals gapped AP rings....

I have seen them live through things that would eat other rings alive. For instance, I ran most of last year with a cracked #8 cylinder. Had to drain the water out after each race. Before I pulled it I decided to do a leakdown, and it was only 5 percent lol. Ran alky on it all year too boot.

A couple of times we reused the rings after a season of racing too. I do run a vacuum pump, but I have never had any blowby issue since my engine guy started using them.

For a 200 shot I'd run hellfire in 1/16-1/6-3/16 grooves and Mahle GNS if using 1.5-1.5-3.0mm

Burr on the ring? Lock coming out? Can you catch the horizontal scratches with a finger nail?

Yea, I can catch a nail... very easily. It's deep. Probably 10 thous deep. It has to be a ring, not a lock as it is on wrong side for it to be a rod lock ring coming out.

What about just re ringing it and running it? It'll burn some oil maybe, but what else?

I have committed worse sins

I’ve re-ringed way worse.

I second the idea of a sleeve . Would not just re-ring it . Gary

Yeah, for a race motor just re-ring it and go. It will puff a little blue smoke in the lights but big deal. You can freshen it over the winter.

what caused that damage? F.O.D., Foreign object damage or what?
Sorry to see that

Not sure just yet.... it'll be a few days to possibly 2 weeks before I can get to it. Busy schedule.

Is that damage in one cylinder or all of them? How far from the top of the cylinders do the scratches go? That will tell you if they are from a ring or piston skirt.

For now pick any junk from the skirts, give the cyllinders a few swipes with a glaze breaker, new rings.and run it till you want to fix it.

:Edited after looking at your pic again. Those scratches are pretty high up, close to where the top ring rides.