gapless rings worth the extra cost??

[grumpyvette]

Ive used total seal rings in several engines, while I can,t say anything bad,as they worked ok, and Im useing them in my current 383 corvette engine, there was not any significant gains in HP that I could PROVE were due solely to the rings and they took a long time too seat correctly, for the cost increase they are not a big advantage

http://www.totalseal.com/gaplesss.html

 

Ive used them,(total seal)

I think they are WAY overpriced

I have seen about a 10hp advantage over normal rings in some cases

youll need to make your own desision as to whether spending $70-$80 more on rings is worth maybe 10 hp to you!

I DON,T think the extra cost is justified personally as a good set of standard rings works fine...keep in mind the standard ring gap thats 16-20 thousands on installation is far smaller at operating temps, in fact the rings almost touch durring opperating temps and how much can leak past during the 1/20-1/60th of a second a power stroke takes

 

anyone had a differant experiance with gapless rings????

[Guest Phil1934]

In the past year or two there has been an industry wide shift towards making the second ring gap larger than the top ring. Previously the top ring got an extra couple thou as it got hotter. But now the thinking is the tighter 2nd ring causes top ring flutter so it gets a couple thou more than the top. Sort of makes you question a gapless 2nd ring. And there was a lot of breakage of gapless top rings so I don't know if they even do that. There was an excellent discussion on another board from a ring manufacturer (lost in a crash). He didn't care for gapless, but pointed out Pro Stock teams pay a couple thou for rings with ten times the precision. And you wonder if gapless are worth the extra few bucks.

[dr_hunt]

Total seal rings work only if the bore is round, and I mean with deck plates and mains torqued and round by a competent machinist. It adds up in the long run, alittle hp here and alittle there.