CHarlie,

I'm not familiar enought with metalurgy to take a guess as to the specifics, but I figure it may be something like that. Since talking about this, I have heard from several people that Mahle rings don't seat as well (or perhaps easily) as other brands.

Could be, Chris. But I had no trouble at all getting my (Mahle) set to seal well. Power is strong, oil consumption is almost nil, and certainly there's no smoke etc. I didn't baby the motor from the first turn of the crank, either.
Having said that, I know John Walker favors Goetze rings.

Doug,

Did you use new cams/rocker's necessitating the 20min cam break in session? Or did you use the old pieces and your initial start included the official 50-mile break-in run?

Just curious as I'll be breaking in a new engine soon......