Going to get started soon

[optmaxx]

So I have the crank and cam installed and everything turns freely, I was going to check for clearances once I had the pistons installed but I've seem to have a problem.

I wasn't going to check for ring end gap, but I did and man they seem off, well it's mostly the second ring. The first rings seems ok by averaging about .019 on each bore, but the second rings averages about .008 which is way off right? I had my walls bored to .020, so my clearance should be around .016 to .022 right? The second ring in my Hastings set is the one with the dot, while the first ring has no dot, but the second ring all seem to be off.

The way I measured was by putting the ring in the bore and then pushing it down a little with the piston to square it off, and then I measured the end gap with a feeler gauge. So what do you guys think? Could it be a bad set? I know about filing them down, but I should probably get that grinder with the wheel, that or buy a new set? The set I have now is for a 96 jeep 4.0. Man that scraping noise from that second ring was driving me crazy!

I had a scare when torquing down the main bearing journals to 80 ft lbs when my socket broke. A piece just shot off somewhere, but luckily it didn't hit the crank or cam...oh yeah, it didn't hit me either haha. I think I'd rather it hit me than my engine parts haha. I did go and buy a new set of sockets.

[Russ Pottenger]

Your rings should be fine. Not sure of your overbore size, but if you want to use as a standard of .004
per inch of bore for your second ring 3.905 X .004 = .016

Your Hastings second ring should have a bottom inside chamfer and dot on top. Dot goes to top.
Top ring is square on backside and can be installed either direction.

Lightly file the tips at the ring gap. That way you'll help prevent scratches in the cylinder bore.
Alternate the ring gaps parallel to the wrist pin. The reason for that is if you isolate what scratches
you may get, from area of bore the piston skirt contacts.


Russ

[nicpaige]

That there is some good advice!

[optmaxx]

I tried filing the second rings to .020 as recommended by Racetec, I was shooting for .018-.020. I used a small flat diamond file that I had around, but then I read somewhere that those aren't recommended, plus I was filing back and forth, and again I read somewhere that it's recommended to file in one direction.

I tried really hard to keep it squared, and to my eye they seem square and they seem to set flush when I press the ring together, but I can feel a small unevenness when I run the feeler gauge in and out. It's really hard for me to see with my eyes for unevenness, so I'm feeling confident with my work. I was thinking that I might have to buy the ring filer and a new set of rings cause I'm not too sure about these.

[optmaxx]

So What I'm trying to ask with the above post is if I should go with I have or maybe invest in the ring filer and order a new set of rings. I did notice that I would sometimes miss the tip of the ring when filing and scrape the side a little, I'm using cast rings.

[Russ Pottenger]

A ring file is a big time saver and a big help keeping the tips square.
Unless you do allot of engines, probably not worth the expense the few time you'll need it.

The filing in a single direction is more of a technique tip.
With only 6 rings to file just take your time and you'll be fine.
Just try to keep them at .020 or less. Not worth dumping another 40 bucks in another set over
a few thousands over. Tight ring gaps causing ring butting from extreme combustion chamber temps is another story.

Russ

[optmaxx]

Cool, thanks. I might post pics of what I've done because I'm not too confident of my work, mostly because I don't know what is acceptable. To me, they look square, but when I run a feeler gauge there's a little unevenness. I might have gone up to .021 on a few or close to it.

[optmaxx]

Here are some pics, I don't know how helpful they are. I did take my time filing them down, and I tried to keep them square. I tried to press them together with one hand, but it was too hard. Oh, and I only filed one tab, and that's the right tab on all of them.

[optmaxx]

Some more.

[Russ Pottenger]

Again you should be fine.
Take you worst example and put it in the bore, square it up with a upside down piston.
That is the easiest way to see how square you got them.

[optmaxx]

I think I installed the rear main seal that goes to the block wrong. I noticed that when I removed the #7 main cap while checking for clearances, that the main seal rotated out of place with the crank. I'm sure that this happened while I spun the crank to see if it'll spin freely, so now I'm guessing that it's because I installed the seal facing the wrong way? The instructions said to face the lip towards the engine, but I'm not exactly sure what is the lip on that seal. Is the side with the groove line in the middle of the seal supposed to face towards the engine? Cause I had that side facing the rear of the engine when it spun out of place with the crank. The seal that goes to the bearing only goes one way because of the tabs so that one is fine.

My clearances for the main caps seem fine, they were from .0015 to .0020.

[SilverXJ]

That shows pretty well how it should go.

[gradon]

Lubricate the seal with oil too.

[optmaxx]

Ok,I think I know what's throwing me off. The video I'm watching on rebuilding 4.0s has the guy putting the other half of the seal on the first chamfer, or slot on the block, but the seal on the bearing lines up with the second slot on the block. It seems from the photos I found on the internet that the seals are supposed to sit n top of each other? That blade from my crank would sit on top of my seal causing it to rotate out of place. Anyways, I included a pic that shows where I had placed the seal in red to start with, but it might be wrong.

Another question is that my main caps don't have any arrows to point which way to face them, but i read that the tabs from the bearings are supposed to line up with the tabs on the block so I went with that and it seemed to be true, especially when it came to installing the #7 cap cause it seemed to go only one way. Pic included that shows what tab I lined up with with the tab on the block bearing.

[gradon]

As you found out, #7 only goes on one way, so match the other 6 to read the same way. You lucked out.