What Kills Piston Rings?

[Mr. Oizo]

So what actually causes it to happen?

Is it just the age of the engine?

[Lachlan33]

I think running excess NOS can cause piston rings to fry and floor panels to fall out..........

Im sure that movie was right.......

[Omurru]

Piston Ring Gremlins.....

On a more serious note, stress is normally what does it, you stress metal and it becomes brittle and fractures. the stress can be caused by excessive temps or pressures differences....well thats what i been told neway

[R33S2]

Depends what you mean by kill, They wear because of the job they do sealing the chamber, and as Omurru stated they get brittle.

[Jetdat]

pinging can but also lack of lubricant if for example the engine running too rich will when the fuel washes the cylinder walls of oil..

wear and tear is another factor obviously.

[sinistaGTR]

little green men

[Kinks]

running out of boost juice will do it in a hurry.

[SECURITY]

it will take alot to kill piston rings.

when my motor blew my #6 piston melted, my ringands snapped, my rings fried.. but they stayed in 1 piece.

age will keep them from sealing properly.

[cameron]

Lean mixtures is the most common... to hot = meltdown.

Detonation can weaken the piston over time, depending on how bad it is

[Bl4cK32]

all of above = poor tune

[R31Nismoid]

^^ agreed, age plays a part aswell.

If the motor is a bit tired, dont run lots of boost into it, just causes more issues

Motors can also ingest crap like comp/turbine wheels which generally doesnt help things either

[SKY 34]

fatique..the rings are under repetitive dynamic loading...

+ the rings are always in friction

[Warpspeed]

What a dumb question.

Rings are made from metal, and metal can never be alive. So you can never kill a ring if it was never alive in the first place.

Do you mean break, wear out, fail to seal, or what exactly ?

If you ask a proper question, you will quite likely get a proper answer.

[Mr. Oizo]

What a dumb question.

Rings are made from metal, and metal can never be alive. So you can never kill a ring if it was never alive in the first place.

Do you mean break, wear out, fail to seal, or what exactly ?

If you ask a proper question, you will quite likely get a proper answer.

wear out/fail to seal

[andylaurel]

detonation

[Warpspeed]

Wear out....

High mileage, bore piston and ring scoring from lack of air cleaner or contaminated oil.

Failing to seal....

Not run in properly, excessive ring to piston groove side clearance, rings gummed up in piston grooves due to sludge and varnish from crap mineral oil, excessive piston rock caused by use of unsuitable forged pistons.

Broken rings....

Ring gap too small, detonation.

Edited October 12, 2006 by Warpspeed

[predator]

^^ agreed, age plays a part aswell.

If the motor is a bit tired, dont run lots of boost into it, just causes more issues

Definitely... my old rb20 was fine at 10-12psi for 12 months or so.. dry as a nun's __ ... Soon as I screwed in 16psi (with tune) it was showing a heap of blowby, and poor idling after only a couple of months after that.

Nothing surer to kill an old engine's rings than boost.

[T04GTR]

detenation is always the cause. not age.

[T04GTR]

215k 300+kwatw no dramas. *touches wood* trafic the catchcan fills up. on the track it does not put a drop in there. it just loves a good de-glaze

[LTHLRB]

im not too sure about my stock bottem end when i get close to the 260kw mark, ive raced my car flat out and drive it very hard on the street and not 1 bit of blow by in my catch can. Its on roughly 11 - 12 psi everyday. its also done 108,000kz and using motul 300v chrono.

Edited October 14, 2006 by LTHLRB