Neil knows what he is talking about and you should listen to him. From my perspective as an engine builder, it's false economy to not re-ring the motor while you have it apart.

In fact, I have never EVER done a "top end rebuild" whatever that is. When I have the case sitting on my tear down table, I ask myself:

- what do the rod bearings look like?
- what do the main bearings look like?
- What is the condition of the oil pump o-rings
- does this case leak anywhere on the parting line?
- Are the squirters blocked or free?

If I cannot answer the above questions to my 100% satisfaction, it ALL comes apart. Doing it right is more important than doing it cheap. And once the whole thing is rebuilt you are looking at 100K miles of trouble free driving.

Scotch-briting the cylinders just deglazes them. You're not going to hurt the nikasil.

If you have access to an ultrasonic parts washer, that will do most of the hard work cleaning the parts.

Like Neil stated, you need to check the bores for ovality, taper, and surface finish to be 100% sure they are good for re-ringing.

Most modern engines have the 2nd ring pinned as the 2nd piston ring is also commonly referred to as the 2nd oil control. I've had good luck with using Total Seal's gapless 2nd rings in applications with nikasil bores and low tension rings, where pinning the 2nd ring isn't an option. This typically eliminates the occasional smoking at startup and reduces oil consumption.

There are some instances where the gaps on new rings are larger than desired, so again we turn to Total Seal for gapless rings as a prophylactic measure to correct for large end gaps.

Years ago I worked at Andial in the race engine dept. My primary responsibility was to dyno test each engine. This was towards the end of the 962C and the very beginning of the then to be (still born) Carrera cup days. I sat shot gun to Alwin Springer testing every engine built there for racing. An interesting time to say the least.

There were 3 other engine builders. Rick Creedon, Steve Becker and Eric Bloss. I have remained friends with both Rich and Steve and occasionally would see Eric when I went over the PMNA. In fact, Rich and I worked together for many years, helping me start Performance Developments back in the early/mid 90's.

We are about to start the rebuilding of a mid 80's 930 engine belonging to Rich. We have given Rich the use of the shop to do the preparatory machine repair work etc prior to assembly. Its great to work together again on a project that allows us to bring up the old days. We laugh and joke about the days at Andial and the many comical situations that occurred.

I have spoken with Steve and hopefully will get in touch with Eric and invite him to along with Ralph and possibly Dieter to join us in the assembly process. It would be a great reunion and an opportunity to re live those days.

It is hoped that we will film this and make available the assembly process, how we do it and possibly help those on this forum learn something.

Maybe we can answer some of the questions and remove some of the doubts often brought up here, including the original question here.

Nice. I will be waiting to see the video of this reunion.

Maybe a thread here as well to document?

What a story and what an opportunity to see the grand old masters at work - I'm sure it will be epic.