Hastings Ring Gap

Good that you seem to have it sorted, why do you guys use the term mil for thousands of an inch, it gets confusing for people who use the metric system, ie millimeters, mil.
The old style oil ring you refer to was a 4 piece ring, two rails, a SPACER, and an expander, in the form of a flat spring behind the lot, to hold tension on it. The rail will never have enough tension on their own, the ends of the spacer didn't touch and could have had a very large gap.
Always check that the grooves are deep enough all of the rings must sit below the skirt of the piston, other wise you have an interference fit in the bore.
I've always used got away with a couple of hose clamps to compress the rings not the best but worked ok.
Rocket science no but it's amazing how much misinformation is spread about something very basic

splatt said:

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The old style oil ring you refer to was a 4 piece ring, two rails, a SPACER, and an expander, in the form of a flat spring behind the lot, to hold tension on it.

Click to expand...

That's interesting, I for sure do not doubt the existence of such a four piece arrangement but I've never personally come across it. The closest I can think of is that flat spring you speak of behind a one piece oil ring that has the center drain section and two scrapers cast as one.

Pistons go up and pistons go down. Seems to be a lot of ways to control oil to allow for enough, but not too much to lube the walls.

Thanks for taking the time to explain the difference, and getting some clarity.

As with the initial poster, the rings I used came without any documentation, or any means of identifying the manufacturer.
They were the 'new Hepolite' marketed by Wassells, and I simply couldn't get the bores past the oil rings as-supplied and yes, I was using ring compressors which could be fine-tuned.

I think I got away with it because I ground off around 15-20 thou (0.015-0.020") to get the rings into the bore. I didn't cut/crop them as such, but you get the picture.

I've since used 'Hepolite' rings on two other motors, a 750 and an 850, both on std. bores, and both assembled OK without anything other than regular gapping of the rings as necessary.

Ironically I recently took delivery of some Goetze (Federal Mogul) rings for my T160 (std. bores with very little wear) from the same source and they came out of the box with >0.040" ring gaps.
I ordered some +0.020" oversize ones and they're just right for a std. bore.
These oil rings are a single piece number with an internal spring. Anyone have any bad experiences with these?