502 Ring Recommendation Please
 

Can you guys give me a recommendation on what Rings you'd use.

502 - Gen VI, Weiand 177, Standard Bore (been honed).

I see Hastings, Speed Pro, etc....

Would like something reasonably priced that will get the job done.

Do I need a "File to Fit" ring for my application or not? Can anyone tell me what the Plasma Moly rings offer?

I think I read on here that they are a 2mm, 1.5mm and 4mm ring, but lots of what I see are 1/16, 1/16/ 3/16 applications.

Any help?

Plasma Moly rings pretty much break in instantly.....of course assuming the cylinders are honed exactly.

Another question to throw at you - standard or low tension oil rings ? The stock 502 comes with low tension oil rings, thus why they use some oil.

Akerly&Childs call them

You should hone to the ring pack you purchase, I'd run file fit, jmo

What does file fit mean, exactly?

Grind the ends of ring for the right clearance

I have file fit speedpro plasma moly rings in my supercharged engines. Logged 400 miles on the engines by water this past summer. No oil consumption, no oil blowing out the breathers, during that 400 miles.

A good ring seal is only as good as the hone job they are up against. In otherwords, the bestest most expensive super duper vacuum tight rings, arent gonna seal very well if you have a crap honing process.

177 blower on a 502....ugh. :(

you must have never used tooled steel rings...

Another plus for the speedpro plasma moly if you can find them in 4.470..they might have to be custom ordered and then you will need to file fit them and make sure you go over the edges after you file them or you will end up with scoring the cylinders..

Mine was just honed not bored so I'm 4.47.

I bought a ring filer but it seems a lot of people don't bother with file fit.

mILD - why down on the 177? Just too small? They cam on the motors when I bought the boat so they are going on. More than enough for my 9 hours of idle and 1 hour of cruise that my boat sees a summer

also keep in mind that some of the earlier blocks had piston rings that measured in MM so a 1/16 1/16 3/16 might not be a option but replacing them with a gm ring set..

R10575 502
(4.466 Bore) Plasma Moly Top Ring 2mm 1.5mm 4mm Std. .005
R10451 454 Special Race Blocks
(4.500 Bore) Plasma Moly Top Ring 1/16 1/16 3/16 Std. .005, .035
R10317 454 Special Race Blocks
(4.500 Bore) Plasma Moly Top Ring 1/16 1/16 3/16 Low .005, .035
R10595 454 Special Race Blocks
(4.500 Bore) Plasma Moly Top Ring 1/16 1/16 3/16 Std. Std.
R10452 454 Special Race Blocks
(4.500 Bore) Plasma Moly Top Ring .043 1/16 3/16 Std. .005
R10316 454 Special Race Blocks
(4.500 Bore) Plasma Moly Top Ring .043 1/16 3/16 Low .005, .035

So the cylinders have been bored, before the choice of ring styles were chosen?

The 177 is too small for a 502. You can make it work, but its not doing a whole lot besides making heat, but it can work.

I had it honed when I took it in for cleaning, etc.....

Fixx - some of the early gen VI? Of some of the MKIV?

I may have missed it, what r the pistons JE-700 ?

Yes

from what i remember if it was a je piston i believe all of them were metric size thickness..call je and ask..speedpro R-10575 i believe is the ring to use..also call speedpro and ask..its been a while since i have build a standard bore 502 engine ..

I just rebuilt a 3 year old gen VI 502 last spring. It had the metric ring pack. You will very few choices. I opted to go with the replacement pistons that weigh the same and accept a standard ring pack. This also fixed the oil blow by and oil consumption when used with the metric ring pack.