I know quite a few gents who have run TS rings only to go back to their standard 'gapped' ringsets. Some even ran better track times with nothing other than a ring change.
The verdict is still out on this Max Seal top ring but I won't be a genui pig. I'll have to see the results from people I know.. not a magazine. Those are the same guys who claim that rev-kits are worth 20-30 hp. If I built rev-kits I'd be pissed... yeah hp sells, but that's not what the rev-kit is really about.... sorry, got off on a tangent.

'genui'... gotta look that word up.... I'm sure I butchered the poor pig all to hell.

-Mindgame

 

Haha... it's guinea.
Easy to remember.... graphic user interface and nea..... maybe I had a little too much of the egg nog.:O

-Mindgame

 

Oh, I for one agree with you, MG. However, it's those FI applications that I am concerned with. You know, where you spend 95% of the time off boost, but need to gap rings for the 5% times.

 

Its good to follow advice... I dont exactly remember how much gap I used for my pistons... I think they were around .028. Dont know... What I do know is that it was a bit more than what stock specifies, due to the fact that I have a supercharged car... so to Richard Krause whom gave me that wonderful advice before I built my engine... Now I know it is a good safe and sound idea... Thanks RICHard!!!!!!!

 

I hear ya arn.

Interesting story from quite a few years back... a friend of mine and myself put together an engine for his bracket car, a 68' Nova. Was a 406 with a 250 hp shot of the juice and was probably one of the strongest engines I'd ever had a part in building. Very consistent and we vowed to have the engine dynoed at the end of the season just to see where we were (this was a budget operation). So we pulled the engine and took it down to Valley Head Service to give it the rundown. Made a little over 620 hp n/a on a solid flat tappet cam and a set of extremely worked over Phase 6 heads. So we took the engine home and took her apart for inspection only to find that our .025 comp-ring gap was now much right at .040! Yeah, there's always a bit of wear but not .015" worth... no way! So we came to the conclusion that we miscalculated our ring gap upon assembling the engine. Funny thing about this is that the VHS dyno sheet recorded blowby figures of less than 6%!! That was at the low engine speed steps, where blowbye figures are generally higher cause they have more time to make a difference.
So, this has led me to believe that gap is not as important as a lot of people would like you to believe. I have since rebuilt a few of my engines and have loosened the gaps to .005 beyond the recommended maximum for 'nitrous use'.... and have always found horsepower gains in doing so. Have even found gains in n/a engines going to .005 beyond recommended there. Mind you, I only use Speed Pro rings, but I've gotten leakdown figures in the 4% range.... think alot of it has to do with the excellent machine work though. Of course I don't do that myself but I think that's where the real magic lies.
If you want a real serious ring... I'd look into the SP Hellfire. Ask Speed Pro what they think about running it on the street. An ideal ring for the FI guy though and the choice of many top racers... Mike Moran comes to mind. Later.

-Mindgame

 

That's what he meant...I asked.

 

Oh yeah, they work alright... just that no one's gonna post the secret dyno results from running them.
Maybe if they really work so well, we can go to a 2 ring piston in our street cars like the big dawgs run.

-Mindgame

 

I was amazed by the huge increase (20psi) of cranking compression.
Would this promote detonation on an already marginal engine or would it increase the cam possibilities for more power???

 

I currently have ts rings in my suburban and i have close to 70 1/4 mile runs all with a 200 shot of nitrous. when i ran it after changing the rings i noticed a big improvement on the nitrous but no improvement with out it.

 

Hmm... I used TS gapless rings on a recent performance rebuild of the MkIV in my truck. Now after reading this post I'm wondering if I chose the right ring.

 

I'll be the 1st to say that TS rings suck ***!!!!I have run them in several 4G63 turbo engines as well as too many V8s...Like said above too much time spent on design criteira and not enough on assembly..Yes i do run gapless rings but they are C&A gapless 2nds and tool steel tops..Offhand i cant remember what they are gapped at but i do know they are 2 thousands losser than reccomended..I've sat down with Pat Musi about this as well a talked via the phone with people at Warren Johnson enterprizes, Hendrick Motorsports and a few noted european engine builders and all have mixed emothions about the ring gap but they all agree that it makes power looser..I dont have sereous leakdown readings as of yet with probally 40K hard street miles and 800 plus passes either..8% in the worst cylinder..

Oil control is where the power is at but with the advent of gappless rings, vacuum pumps etc etc., people forget the basic proven stuff like crank scrapers, windage trays,trap doors, stand offs and checking each and every bearing clearance during assembly..Posts that reference mag articles like that one make me remember the Borla?muscle mustangs and fast fords incedent a few years ago that evan smith told me..In the end its all about money..Probally why that teh best mag out there now..

 

LT1 1980 Malibu, so is your concern with TS's product and not gapless design rings in general? This is an interesting thread and I'd like to learn more of the thoughts out there on this controversial topic.

 

Good info. Hopefully this post will keep going.


By the way SkarodoM is that Greg Good that is (or was) in Houston ? Just wondering.

 

My problem is with TS gappless rings..Ive used other companys gapless designs with far better succes..Im personally a childs and albert guy..On my RX7s engine i used a standard tension and top ring gfrom their tool steel line and a gappless 2nd ring..I set the 2nd ring way loose (more than the max reccomended setting)..I have very leakdown and in hopes of lotsa spray in the future the tool steel top rings were the hands down choice..

Myself havent heard much good about total seal rings..Albiet from guys that teardown their engines and check up on them..Im sure that there will be somebody that says they are the ****...