Turbo-Piston ring questions.

[DefEddie]

Finally getting time to throw the TGP shortblock together for my 88fiero.
Got a couple questions though.
What type of rings are turbo guy's running. What brand and type are you guy's running and why.

What are you setting ring tension at?

More to come,but due to getting sent the wrong rings (3100) I've got to reorder and wanted to get some opinions first.

Engine is std bore with stock pistons.

*I've got a set of NIB rings for a 3100 if anyone is interested.

[RedZMonte]

im content running the sealed power -premium from checker at stock ring gaps. possibly having to ring mine soon....

[DefEddie]

Okay,any idea on ring tension?
We're not sure how low we can go,never done turbo motor.
I'll check out the sealed power.
I'm doing some checking and might have found what i wanted.
for a different application that are available in steel and possibly gas nitrided.
Not sure if it'll work,need to consult machine shop buddy first.
Theyre 89mm bore and 1.5/1.5/4 though.

Just offhand,how has gas porting the pistons worked also?
We're planning on it anyway,curious what others experience was.

[2.8-350TBI]

I think this may helpz ya

http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/piston_ring_technology/index.html

[DefEddie]

While the article was very informing and appreciated,still doesn't have my info.

I know what gas porting does,I want to know what kind of luck people have had with it in a specific v6 turbo application.
Same for setting the tension on the oil ring (you dont' have to buy special rings),wondering what has been working for people in the turbo 60* v6.
We don't want to set it too low,but at the same time alot of power can be had from the right tension.
My buddy helping with the engine build generally does NHRA stock eliminator motors. This is his first turbo v6 engine build and basically we're not sure what it wants.
So he's got me scavenging for information cause the only turbo engine stuff he knows about usually involve 450+ci/8cyl and twins that aren't street driven.

[TurboGTU]

I ran stock gaps. But I always checked them in the hole. Our bore is too small I didn't even worry about ring butting. Big bores 4in+ would have that problem and need indexed filed.
Here is a helpfull link.http://www.laskeyracing.com/shop/ringgap.htm

[Joseph Upson]

Our bore is too small I didn't even worry about ring butting. Big bores 4in+ would have that problem and need indexed filed. [/URL]

I don't know, the 3900 has the same cylinder bore as the LS1 so I was able to use a set of Forged LS1 pistons for my build. The ring gap from the factory for the 3900 was set at the minimum .006, I measured it. The stock gap recommended for the LS1 with the same bore is about .024 so I gapped them to that spec fearing .006 was way to small although I didn't seem to have a problem with boosting the 3900 engine in stock form with the smaller gap.

I did notice that despite the same bore between the two engines the LS1 had thicker rings and perhaps that's part of the reason the gap was larger although I still felt it was a bit much and didn't like it. They also fit the bore a little tighter as well but that's because they were file to fit and therefore a little oversized for use to cover the oversized pistons offered.

In the process of tuning all it takes is a good lean area to butt a narrow ring gap, I did it on my first turbo V8 although I didn't recognize the groove in the cylinder as having been caused by it when I first saw it years ago. It was on a chevy TPI 305 with a stock ring gap of .010 so there's a very good chance that had the gap been .024 it may not have happened. If I had it to do over I would have gapped the rings to ~.017 in the forged 3900 build.

[DefEddie]

Haven't had time to verify,but in case you guy's are interested there are several import's that have an 89mm piston with 1.5/1.5/4mm rings.
And they come from the factory with gas nitrided steel rings.
Check out a 92 Mazda 929 with a 3.0
Still haven't had time to order rings yet,got alot going on atm and finishing up rebuild on wifes transmission is priority.
I think we're just going to set the ring tension as low as we think we can safely go without blowing oil.
If I end up blowing oil we'll just have to pull it and reset.
Gap's we've already figured out,don't have it on me but i'll check and post back. IIRC we were going to use around .006 per inch or so (around .01

Would be nice also to know how high you guy's have safely spun these things up too.
I don't plan to spin past 6500 or so,but nice to know the limits of stock-I know we should be safe till at least 7500 though.

[DefEddie]

Just an update,couldn't get ahold of any of the import rings for testing so just went with some sealed power rings.
I didn't go with premium because they are moly,I went with iron.

We did check tensions though and it was light as hell already @ 10lbs so no adjustment was needed.
I guess nobody has ever gas ported a 60* v6 engine so i'll post up results on that when I have them.
Right now we're seeing what we can do about using a set of heads everyone says you can't use on these.
Seem to keep getting sidetracked on different things lol. Yesterday instead of gas porting the pistons we spent half the day measuring for a bolt-in cam sensor i'm trying to build for OBDI 60*'s.
On a good note though the brainstorming was fruitfull and I successfully machined down the peice needed last night in my shop.
Now I just need to invert the signal and make sure I can correlate it and I might have something.
Course I don't have a test vehicle to use at the moment to convert to OBDII,might have to buy a beater car to test (or to drive while I test on fiero,lol)
I have another running fiero,but it's a 4cyl and the test bed for a coil on plug conversion we are also playing with. Not ready to mess with an obd convert on it yet.
Anyway,thanks for the help guy's sorry for the ramble-helps me thinks sometimes.