A Guide to Choosing High-Quality Piston Rings for Your Engine

• Efficiency: Quality rings create a tight seal, preventing gas leakage during the combustion process. This maximizes the energy produced during each cycle.
• Durability: Superior materials and craftsmanship ensure piston rings can withstand the rigors of engine operation, reducing wear and tear.
• Emissions: Quality rings contribute to cleaner combustion, reducing harmful emissions and helping engines meet environmental standards.
• Reduced Oil Consumption: Properly functioning rings regulate oil flow, decreasing the need for frequent oil top-ups.
• Longevity: Durable piston rings extend the life of your engine components, saving you from costly repairs and replacements.

• Cast Iron: Common for many applications due to its durability.
• Steel: Offers excellent strength and heat resistance.
• Performance Materials: Materials like chrome, molybdenum, or nitrided steel are used for high-performance engines.

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If asked what you wanted for piston rings in your engine build, would you know how to answer? Piston rings have the most important job in your engine. We will get arguments on this one because there really are no unimportant parts in your engine. However, what makes piston rings so important is what they do.

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The humble, hard-working piston ring dates back to when a man named John Ramsbottom demonstrated the friction-reducing value of piston rings along with the sealing and cooling benefits. Piston rings improved efficiency. In those days, it was more about steam engines and less about internal combustion.

Piston rings provide cylinder and combustion chamber sealing, which keeps heat energy contained where it belongs, above the piston. Any heat energy that escapes past the piston rings is lost power—period. Heat energy contained above the piston goes to work making power at the crankshaft. Piston rings also carry destructive heat into the water jacket via the cylinder wall to control heat and prevent piston meltdown.

What people want most from piston rings is cylinder sealing along with low tension to achieve less friction and better efficiency. It is challenging to get both. We live in an age of skinny, low-tension compression rings—sometimes as narrow as 0.023-inch, or 0.6mm. This works if you have perfectly honed cylinder walls. If you don’t, rings tend to distort and you’re not going to get optimum cylinder sealing.

Proper ring selection means understanding ring function, material, piston design, and bore dynamics. Pistons, rings, and cylinder bores must have a perfect marriage to function properly. Proper engine break-in is critical to endurance and reliable ring function. The type of piston ring you choose depends on how you intend to use your engine. Mild street performance engines call for a more “vanilla” ring package than supercharged, turbocharged, or nitrous-fed engines. Racing engines demand a much tougher ring package on par with what’s used for supercharged, turbocharged, or nitrous engines.

Which ring you choose boils down to how much heat and force you intend to impose on them. If your engine is bone stock as delivered from the factory, you’re probably not going to want to hear this. A box-stock engine is equipped with ductile iron and cast-iron piston rings. This means your rings are not going to like a supercharger or that occasional nitrous blast because stock ductile and cast-iron rings can’t always stand the heat and pressure associated with forced induction or squeeze.

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If you’re opting for nitrous or forced induction, you’re going to need a top compression ring capable of withstanding the heat and pressure associated with these elements. This calls for high-end materials according to Ed Law at Total Seal. Ed suggests an AP Stainless top ring with PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) for forced-induction and nitrous applications.

Total Seal’s high-performance piston ring sets include an AP Steel top ring that has been coated using PVD-applied C-33 chromium nitride anti-friction coating for greater efficiency. The C-33 coating is easy on cylinder walls while the steel top ring still has the ability to handle extreme pressures. Napier secondary rings and three-piece stainless oil control rings come standard with the AP Stainless Steel Ring Set.

As a rule, pistons and rings are generally sold in sets unless you’re reusing old pistons or are choosing a different type of ring than the manufacturer provides. Manufacturers such as Federal-Mogul Speed Pro from Summit Racing Equipment sell pistons and rings as sets for your convenience. This makes piston and ring selection a no-brainer for the average enthusiast. Just look at what the manufacturer suggests for the type of driving you intend to do and refine your decision from there.

An important consideration as to how well the piston rings seal is the hone of the engine block. Your machine shop should have a PAT gauge to accurately measure the final hone’s surface roughness. Total Seal says typical values (measured in microinches) for general performance applications should be around RPK 8-12, RK 20-30, and RVK 30-50. Is your local machine shop capable of this caliber of work? Not all of them are. If a machine shop can finish late-model Ford or GM stockers with their thin rings to maintain original emissions compliance and factory tolerances, the answer is likely affirmative. Confirm this when you drop the block and pistons off. CHP

Photos by Jim Smart