"What's New In Piston Rings"
 

While searching the web for various things engine related I came across this article on Piston Rings from HotRod Magazine. It's not really what's new since the article is from 2009 but I thought it was worth sharing anyway.

http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/e...h/viewall.html

Good article Jason. Thanks for sharing.

What rings are you planning to run in your new builds?

I was going to run a ductile iron top ring with a plasma-moly face and cast 2nd with standard oil ring tension. After reading that article I am having 2nd thoughts due to the boost I may put to her.

I am now leaning toward a steel or ductile ironl top ring facing material. I'm open to suggestions.

It probably depends on how much boost you plan on running. Plasma moly is ok for 5-7 lbs. For higher boost you might want to look at Hellfire rings. I'd check with their techs about use in an endurance engine though. Some guys say they cause more cylinder wear.

+1 on the hellfire rings. I was told same thing about them causing wear on the bores, but mainly on a production block. I think they may be fine on a dart block.

Can you bring some clarity to what a hellfrie ring is? It appears to be an Iron ring with a ductile iron facing material. I'm guessing each vendor offers a hell fire style ring??

Extremely hard tempered super duty ductile iron ring. Can handle lots of nitrous, boost, etc.

heres some good reading about rings on another forum...

http://speedtalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3923

Check out the "napier" rings....I used them in mine last winter when I did my build. I used the Total seal plasma molly top ring, napier 2nd ring and a std. tension oil ring.

anything over 600 hp,i like the total seal 0 gap top ring set,they show really low leak down numbers.

I am using the Total Seal Max-Seal gapless rings in my 540 build. I had the hellfire rings before and they didn't seem to seat that well/quickly but it was a N/A setup built for future boost.