{"id":20398,"date":"2023-04-22T10:52:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-22T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxtorqueperformance.com\/staging\/?p=20398"},"modified":"2023-04-22T11:08:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-22T15:08:02","slug":"seal-the-deal-total-seals-gas-ported-piston-rings-seal-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxtorqueperformance.com\/staging\/index.php\/2023\/04\/22\/seal-the-deal-total-seals-gas-ported-piston-rings-seal-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Seal The Deal: Total Seal\u2019s Gas-Ported Piston Rings Seal Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"scottparkhurst\"<\/a><\/div>\n

By\u00a0<\/span>SCOTT PARKHURST<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>APRIL 20, 2023<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n

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Research has proven how critical piston rings are to internal combustion engines. The rings are the primary source of friction inside the engine, which we know causes a loss of power and increases heat. But, for the pressure of compression and, to a greater extent, the expansion created by ignition when the air\/fuel mixture burns and creates peak cylinder pressure, the rings are what keep that goodness sealed up atop the piston. It\u2019s a high-stress environment and the piston ring is dealing with an extreme compromise.<\/p>\n

On one hand, we want the ring to seal completely and contain all of the energy and pressure up in the combustion chamber where it belongs. This way, it can use its pressure to force the piston down the bore and turn the crankshaft with maximum potential power. On the other hand, we want to minimize the friction between the piston ring and the cylinder wall, so we don\u2019t waste any of that precious power we just created to overcome frictional losses. What can we do to minimize this compromise?<\/p>\n

First, we can make the piston rings as thin as possible. This minimizes their \u201cfootprint\u201d on the cylinder wall so friction is lessened. We want to make the ring as thin as possible while making sure it still can seal effectively. We can run a thinner ring if we know it has sufficient pressure to hold it firmly against the cylinder wall.<\/p>\n

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The lateral grooves machined into the top face of the piston ring allow combustion gasses to make their way behind the top ring, and exert force outward on the ring, making for a better seal, with no holes drilled in the pistons themselves.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Using Combustion Pressure To Seal<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Creative engineers discovered that they could borrow a little cylinder pressure from the engine to assist the rings in sealing to the bore by drilling small holes down through the top of the piston to the space behind the ring \u2014 this is called gas-porting a piston. This way, the ring seal would improve dramatically when cylinder pressure was high, but the tension would drop when that cylinder pressure was no longer present (at the bottom of the power stroke) and ring resistance against the cylinder bore wall could be minimized on the exhaust stroke. This gas porting has been a proven upgrade for decades.<\/p>\n

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This is a very common modification on race-only engines that get rebuilt often, but because the holes drilled through the deck of the piston are so small, they get clogged up quickly in street engines where more carbon is present and rebuilds are infrequent. Luckily, the team at\u00a0<\/span>Total Seal\u00a0<\/span><\/a>wasn\u2019t content to leave the idea alone. They realized how a top ring could be given \u201cports\u201d itself, allowing cylinder pressure to come in behind it from the top and accomplish the same thing as the drilled holes. But, would gas-ported piston rings remain strong enough not to twist? Could it still seal effectively against the cylinder wall with less mass, being a lighter-weight ring?<\/p>\n

\"Total<\/a> <\/p>\n

Total Seal can gas-port almost any ring in their catalog, except gas-nitrided rings. So whatever you\u2019re running for a piston ring, there\u2019s a gas-ported ring to fit it.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

After some research and experimenting, the answers were both yes. We learned that Total Seal not only offers gas-ported piston rings in standard sizes, but can retrofit thinner rings to standard pistons through the use of a special shim in the ring groove to space the ring correctly and support it, and that the rings themselves were carefully crafted to survive long-term in this angry environment with their special task at hand.<\/p>\n

We spoke with Keith Jones at\u00a0<\/span>Total Seal<\/a>, and he shared with us how it\u2019s done.\u201cWe have groove spacers to reduce the axial height, which means we can put a nice thin ring in a thick groove. We make these spacers in .016-inch, .030-inch, and .046-inch heights. But not in all bore sizes. As far as the shim to fill in the back clearance behind the ring, we offer .035-inch x .014-inch (axial and radial), .055-inch x .016-inch, and .070-inch x .014-inch, depending upon the height of the ring groove. Ideally, one wants about .005-inch-.010-inch back clearance behind the ported ring. This small amount of space gas-loads quickly, and reduces excess crevice volume, which can affect ring seal,\u201d Jones explains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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