strange piston rings

H

henry8

Junior Member
I successfully removed the engine and trans. from my 1956 vic for rebuild. The engine turns out to be from a 1957, a 292 and a fordomatic. when I tore the engine apart, I found that all the pistons had two rings in the center groove, what looks to be a regular ring and a very thin one, much like the thin ones in the oil groove. I have rebuilt many small blocks but never a y-block. Is this normal? Thanks
 
I have never heard of anything like that coming from the factory. Don't know if it would be aftermarket. Sounds more like someone experimenting with an idea.


Sal
 
just dug through my old parts supply and found a set for a 292.they are ramco 10 up.some will remember them.the date on the box is 1962.same as your talking about.
 
henry8 said:
I successfully removed the engine and trans. from my 1956 vic for rebuild. The engine turns out to be from a 1957, a 292 and a fordomatic. when I tore the engine apart, I found that all the pistons had two rings in the center groove, what looks to be a regular ring and a very thin one, much like the thin ones in the oil groove. I have rebuilt many small blocks but never a y-block. Is this normal? Thanks
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The ring lands may have been resized and they are shims , so be careful if installing new rings to pay attention to land clearances .
 
Thanks for the replys, guys, I am pretty sure the pistons are original except for #4 as they are marked FoMoCo. The #4 also has the extra ring so I think the rings were changed out at some point. I checked and the middle ring is thinner than the top ring and the second middle ring is thinner than a oil ring. Also, I don't plan on changing pistons unless I have to, so should the piston pin wire keepers be changed out or not?
 
Years ago, it was common practice to widen the ring groove to take a shim ring as well as the stock ring. Much cheaper than replacing pistons. If the pistons were a bit worn on the skirt, they were knurled, then hand filed to fit each cylinder, or sanded back to stock size plus .005 or so.
Today, bore it, and have the rods redone with new top bushings. It will be money well spent.
 
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