I've heard both extremes and an in-between when it comes to lubing the piston/rings/skirts when installing pistons on a buildup. I'v heard some use 20-50W motor oil, some use 10-30W motor oil, some use Auto trans fluid, some use W-D40, some use nothing! Some use a Dry-Film lube Called "Quick Seal". These are coming from "professional" engine builders too so it's kinda confusing as to who's right ya know? I've always used thin motor oil because the engine needs some lube to build compression to fire, (at least that's what I've found- **try firing an engine that has been washed down due to flooding**!) What do you guys do?

 

Quick Seat, dry. The rings need to break in as quickly as possible to get the best seal, putting a lube in there other than this moly lube makes that process take a bunch longer. Then again I use a pretty rough surface finish.

Bret

 

Quick Seat is a lube? What do you mean by that and dry...nothing but Quick Seat?

 

Right, dry as in DRY like a good martini. It's a moly based lube, rather than oil based. You clean the bores with WD40 until the towels are white and then dry them out and rub the Quick Seat in there.

Bret

 

Gotcha. Is doing it COMPLETELY dry bad? I've seen people do it before and was just wondering.

 

I don't mean to jack this thread but I have sort of a related topic. I have a shortblock that has been sitting for a while and I was wondering what I should do to lube it up before I assemble the rest of the motor. The shortblock already has around 500 miles on it and should be broken in nicely. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks,

Jeremy

 

Bret,
Where can ya get the Quick Seat and is that the proper name for it? Wanted to try it but have not found any locally or at any place I deal with.

 

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...6&autoview=sku

There ya go LR

 

Thanks--- I didn't look there Daaaaa.

 

I dry bore install. As I have said before many people do it different ways, and I just like to seat the rings quickly. Never have ring seal problems when broken in correctly, I would try that quick seat stuff, but don't like to mess with success...if it aint broke dont fix it. That's just the way I was taught by a guy who had done it for 40 years and had nascar and indy experiance.

 

M1,
I had done one of the old ways for a long time with no failures also.
I would wet a rag with 30W and wring it out.Then run it in the bores. Then oil the skirt and pin with a squeeze drop bottle. Nothing on the rings,then with a tapered ring compressor just sock it to it.
This came from the R&D with Childs & Albert that I did for them 20+ years ago.
Total Seal recommended this stuff for their rings and said if the rings didn't seat they would give me another set(I'm the one who has to put them in though) The guy I talked to didn't say it was their Quick Seat,just found out tonight when Bret gave me the link to it.So I thought I would give it a try with their high dollar gapless rings.For me that's stepping real far out on the limb.
If it don't work I will let people know. Seeing that I know have a Mitutoyo surftest 211 for the wall finish and the shop has all the proper stones it should work. I understand this gapless top ring package has to be just So So to work properly and they sent me the procedure on the finish. We will see.Let me know if you have used these rings or anyone-- Bret maybe.

 

The first motor I built was a 289 for my mustang, and I had nobody helping me, so I had to figure it out as I went. I took the whole piston with rings installed and dipped it an a coffee can full of 30w, then dropped the whole sticky oily mess into the bores...rings seated great and the motor made 275rw with trick flow heads and a flat tappet cam with less than .500 lift.

Everybody's methods work for them, otherwise they wouldn't continue doing it.

I will be intrested in what you learn.

 

HAHAHA....that sounds like something I would do...heck I still may . It is funny how everyone has there own way that works great. I wonder if anyone will ever put the time and money towards an impartial test of which way works best?

 

LOL
That's the way I did it on my first sprint car 327/350 and it worked fine. Ran the thing 5 nights a week and all season long. The were GM Seal Power chrome edge rings,over the counter GM.Put a new set in over the winter when rebuilding the car/engine.
These moly rings don't like that.We found that out with C&A moly rings. It caused the cyl to slick out and the rings would not seat.(Babo seated them)Did that to prove a point to them,no more blow by.
I will let ya know if it works or not and if I/shop got the finish right to seal them.

 

My first engine built 12 years ago was lubed with engine oil liberally and the rings didnt seat properly and had to be torn down for a new set.every engine since then has been built wiping the bores with a light machine oil wiped sparingly on the bores, never had a problem since with a good 20 plus engines under my belt.I have heard of the product sstrokerace uses and it also works nicely from what I hear.