Quote:
Originally Posted by JSeery
I always understood that the rings move around, but it still seems like good practice to stager them for the initial installation. Don't think you would want all of the ring gaps lined up during the break in process.
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Why? The engine will never know the difference. Consider: At room temperature (cold engine), the piston head (ring land area) is about .030" smaller than the skirt. So that's a .015" clearance all around the piston. Let's say ring gap is .015". Multiply .015 X .015. That makes the ring gap area that is exposed to compression pressure only .000225 square inches. That's a small opening! Idling at 500 RPM, the compression stroke lasts .24 seconds. How much compression can escape through that tiny opening, pressurize the (large by comparison) area between the top and second ring, and escape past the second ring in .24 seconds? Not enough to notice!
At 2,000 RPM cruise, the compression stroke lasts only .06 seconds (six hundredths of a second).