Has anyone tried gapless rings?

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 2:29 am

http://www.totalseal.com/SearchByApplication.aspx

Shows they have them for EA81's and EA82's.

Back in an old American "Car Craft" magazine I saw the review.
Comparing different rings to the stock ones.
Smaller gaps yielded higher compression/vacuum numbers
but the gapless rings were even better than hi-po small gap rings.

Something like 5-9% more torque on an old V8
and the motor "acted" like it had higher compression,
maybe they read cranking compression from a spark plug-location tester.
It seemed to have a similar effect on taking their 9:1 compression up to 9.5:1.

Silverbullet · Post by **Silverbullet** » Fri Jul 29, 2011 10:32 pm

Gapless rings? never heard of them, how would they work?

2nd Hand Yank · Post by **2nd Hand Yank** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 12:00 am

Silverbullet wrote:Gapless rings? never heard of them, how would they work?

http://www.totalseal.com/TechPage.aspx# ... sPistRings

2-piece design apparently.

After reading this link, I'd love to have them on the top rings.
But I wonder if I could even install them without doing a total engine rebuild?

Bottom end overhaul needed? Top and bottom needed?
Seems like a great way to boost performance without mucking too much with factory settings.

littlewhiteute · Post by **littlewhiteute** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 7:01 am

Personally, I wouldn't bother with gapless rings on a street engine.

Have used them in a street/strip engine with dubious results.

Really meant for a high rpm racing engine where you will be chasing every last bit of power.

Post by **yarney** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 8:31 am

littlewhiteute wrote:Really meant for a high rpm racing engine where you will be chasing every last bit of power.

You need every inch of power in a ea81/82

:rolleyes:

Jan

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 9:43 am

2nd Hand Yank wrote: But I wonder if I could even install them without doing a total engine rebuild?
Bottom end overhaul needed? Top and bottom needed?

Rebuild would be required as the bores of the cylinder would need to be honed so that the rings could bed in properly. Without this it would most likely be a waste of time and money. Since the block needs to be split for this it would be a top and bottom rebuild while you're at it.

2nd Hand Yank wrote:Seems like a great way to boost performance without mucking too much with factory settings.

Hehehe... Sorry I find this funny as there's really no real worth while performance boost for an EA82 unless it's a hotted up EA82T, but even then, for the money involved, an EJ22 will be the best performance upgrade for an EA82! Best bang for buck, more reliable (depending on the donor unit) and just a better design all-round.

Save your money, do some research and then dive into the EJ conversion. You won't regret it!

Cheers

Bennie