Long term effects of Total Seal conventional rings on 3.2 Nikasil cylinders?
 

When I tore down my 3.2 due to a money shift, I noticed the piston rings were very low tension. Now, they were severely worn, so maybe that was why I thought they were low tension?

I bought Total Seal conventional rings (98mm, 3.4L P&C's) through EBS, and noticed they were stiff as you'd expect for an American iron V8.

Question is, am I just mistaking a brand new ring with full dimension to be high tension or are TS's really stiffer?

Second, if they're stiffer than OEM, should I expect excess wear to the bores?

TIA :)

The answer to the second question is yes. Learned that from using deves rings about 25 years ago.

I've used Total Seals in the second groove since 1978 in many race engines and some street ones. The 2.7 engine in my own car has had them since 1979 and still has 2% leakdown.

All of these have had Mahle Nikasil cylinders.

The critical aspect is ring finish & coating so if you use them, tell TS you have Nikasil bores so they send you the correct ones.

Deves rings are junk in these engines and I've had nothing but big-time grief every time I see them.

Thanks Steve, I feel better now. :)

Just be aware that the Total Seals have a hard face that requires some "determination" to seat them properly. We do this on the engine dyno where the load and temperatures are carefully controlled.

In car, one would get a little aggressive during this procedure and be diligent about cooling them between acceleration runs.

I babied the first 500 miles and no blowby, they seated just fine. Guess I was lucky.

I used WD-40 or something extremely light though, no oil on them.

I recently built a 3.0 l motor and had Total Seal modify my Mahle rings. They machined a small relief in the top ring for the insert of a sealing ring. Ran leak down after about an hour on dyno and had virtually 0 leakdown. Ran leak down again after 2 hrs on track with same result.

Steve,
Do they hold up well in 3.3l turbo engines?

I've used them in 934 and 935 engines quite successfully,...... :)