Piston Ring Gap

Can anybody give an idea what the piston ring gap should be.
Mine is about 5 or 6 thou. That seems a bit tight to me.
Would have thought 10 to 15 thou would be nearer the mark.

Jimbo

Mine are about 10

Thanks for the confirmation Lynn

Jimbo

My LP piston is exceptionally tight in the bore, to the point where I can almost push the engine with the amount of force required to move the LP piston. What would people suggest ? A colleague at work talked about honing the bore but that's something I'd really rather not do!

I hone the bores on all my engines the machined finish is not as good as you think sometimes
When you start to hone the bore the true finish will be seen and in most cases it made up from "hills" and "valleys", they may be only 1or2 thou deep but they are there
its easy to do and only takes about 4 to 5 mins to do but you end up with a lovely bore, just use plenty oil as you do it
hope this helps
Mark

Thanks for the info Mark.
I have just bought some stones to hone mine, was surprised how cheap they are £10 for the HP and £20 for LP. The HP is not too bad just needs a little tickle up, but the LP is very tight. Unfortunately I have already gapped the rings so hoping that they will still be OK after honing.

Jim

The difference honing will do will not change the ring by any measurable size.

That's right Lynn. 1 thou or 2 on the diameter is next to nothing on the circumference. Thank you Mr Pi.

On the foden i just used a piece of corn flake packet to set the gap, never had a problem yet with them and been running for a few months now which included a 10 mile road run

Russ

How much water did that use Russ?

Mike

Hi Mike , i think it used 3 lower tanks thats from leaving the field getting to the pub and back. I only have the lower tank fitted as well so i was down on water capacity

Russ