Engines > Your Own Design
A new attempt at making piston rings
Brian Rupnow:
Let me start out by saying that I have made my own piston rings in the past---and failed dismally. I was so disheartened by my failed attempt that I went to Viton o-rings and never looked back. Now I have ten or twelve years engine building experience, and I am going to try again. I have a 1" bore side shaft engine which I built a few years ago with a Viton ring, and it runs very good, and has incredible compression. I have chosen this engine because I can undo the con-rod bolts and remove the piston without disturbing any of the other engine settings. This will require that I machine a new piston and two rings.
Brian Rupnow:
After considerable reading of books by Malcolm Stride, Philip Duclos, L.C. Mason and various posts by George Britnell, I have compiled this list of things related to ring making. This information is not "absolute", as some of the information given by one author tends to disagree with information given by a different author.
Brian Rupnow:
The drawings below show the piston "as built" for one 1/16" cross section Viton o-ring, and the same piston redrawn for a piston that accepts two cast iron o-rings to match the rings supplied by Debolt. (I will be making these rings to the same dimensions as two rings purchased from Debolt for my Vertical i.c. engine-2021). Note that nothing on the piston changes except the information relating to ring width, depth, and location.
fumopuc:
Hi Brian, may be it is worth to watch this video.
https://youtu.be/DsW2IxQfshA
In my understanding very usefull.
mikehinz:
Brian, I'm following this with interest as I'm building my first I/C engine, a Webster, and am using a Viton o-ring, but in the future, I definitely want to attempt making cast iron rings and comparing them to an o-ring in the same engine, just as you are doing on this project.
I always enjoy reading your posts and watching your work progress!!
Mike
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version