Successful run home in rebuilt C2/ Rings seated?

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lib - 06 Sep 2007 03:08 GMT

I had a good 2-day run on the back roads south from Wash. state to N.Calif.
Labor Day weekend with my son in my 63 Roadster. We left without approx. 400
mi. on motor and arrived with about 1350 mi. It was tight at about 3700 rpm.
when pulled out and was tight at about 4500 when arrived home. Temps. in
upper 90's in E. Oregon & N. Calif. during day, but motor stayed less than
210 deg. (according to new calibrated heat gauge) and never spit out of the
expansion tank after stopping for fuel. Squeezed it up to about 90 mph. on a
couple of long straight stretches and it felt steady and stuck to the road.
It has new G-Year radials and soft AC shocks so the ride was tolerable. It
was not comfortable for the last 200 mi. due to the heat and no AC, but it
introduced my kid into the way it used to be. He didn't mind it and got to
experience wing windows that crank open. It felt good to see how much he
enjoyed driving it and didn't mind not playing the radio and just listening
to the car, the road, and checking the gauges. I know I found the now 30
year-old guy to pass it on to when I'm not able/ want to drive it.

The driver-side bank exhaust is puffing a bit of smoke when pulling away
from a stop. It was a bored when re-built, new rings, etc. It seems to me
the rings should have seated at 1300 mi. and driving at varied speeds,
pulling hills, etc. Any ideas or knowledge on getting them to seat
correctly? Thanx- lib

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Dad - 06 Sep 2007 03:35 GMT

>I had a good 2-day run on the back roads south from Wash. state to
>N.Calif. Labor Day weekend with my son in my 63 Roadster. We left
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>calibrated heat gauge) and never spit out of the expansion tank after
>stopping for fuel.

Snip

> The driver-side bank exhaust is puffing a bit of smoke when pulling
> away from a stop. It was a bored when re-built, new rings, etc. It
> seems to me the rings should have seated at 1300 mi. and driving at
> varied speeds, pulling hills, etc. Any ideas or knowledge on getting
> them to seat correctly? Thanx- lib

Sounds like an interesting and successful trip. As for the rings
seating I ran single weight non detergent oil for about 500 miles
before I could get a stubborn set to seat, happened to be on a '63 but
it was an Impala.

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Tom in Missouri - 06 Sep 2007 13:46 GMT

Great story. Now if you need to leave any other cars to someone, well ....

Oh heck, I'm not 30 and not even close.

For the most part, the rings will seat much easier than they did 40 years
ago, due to the different materials. One necessary thing to do is to
remember to do both gentle climbs in RPMs and gentle downshifts to seat
squarely. Do a progressive increase in revs over the first few thousand,
such as limit to mostly in 500 RPM increments for each few hundred miles.

Of course, if you didn't bore the engine, then new rings in an old block
will find any imperfection in the roundness of the cylinder. Even when you
measure they are still in tolerance, they usually have some points that are
not quite round or the clearance is a bit more than the rest. So you will
get those puffs of smoke. They may wear enough to even it all out, or it
may not. As long as it isn't huge puffs, you are probably find.

Good luck with the car and enjoy. You have been working a long time just
for trips like this.

>I had a good 2-day run on the back roads south from Wash. state to N.Calif.
>Labor Day weekend with my son in my 63 Roadster. We left without approx.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> pulling hills, etc. Any ideas or knowledge on getting them to seat
> correctly? Thanx- lib

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Butcher - 06 Sep 2007 14:31 GMT

> Great story. Now if you need to leave any other cars to someone, well
> ....
[quoted text clipped - 41 lines]
>> pulling hills, etc. Any ideas or knowledge on getting them to seat
>> correctly? Thanx- lib

I had a car a few years ago I rebuilt the engine twice over 250K miles of
driving -- it took 15K and 10K miles after rebuilds to fully seat maybe ring
material has gotten harder these days and takes longer, also maybe I drove
it too easy? BTW the second rebuild was because a mouse or squirrel had
packed the engine full of birdseed and deer corn by travelling up the
exhaust, if one's car has large dia. pipes no cat. and flow-through muffler
a coffee can over the exhaust end would be a good idea especially if the car
doesn't get driven much and it's garaged in the country...

Butcher
'96 LT-4 CE

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Ric Seyler - 06 Sep 2007 16:44 GMT

>I had a good 2-day run on the back roads south from Wash. state to N.Calif.
>Labor Day weekend with my son in my 63 Roadster. We left without approx. 400
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
>

They should of been seated.... Did you notice any blow-by out of the
crankcase?
Anything oily on the exterior of the breathers?
There could be a number of reasons they aren't sealing. What cross hatch
pattern
and grit stones was put on the finished bores? Were the ring gaps
properly staggered?
It' is even "possible" someone thought they would be "clever" and use
hard chromed racing
rings or very light tensioned racing rings. (Bad idea on the street)
Maybe the rings aren't the cause. Were the valve guides knurled or
replaced? Did you use
umbrella valve seals? (Generally bad guides/seals show smoke on
deceleration, but not
always).
Excessive piston to wall clearance will also cause a bad ring seal. But
generally you will hear
excessive piston slap til it gets warmed up.
Bottom line it shouldn't take very long at all for the rings to seat if
all the specs and materials are
proper. You should be able to gun it under load without seeing ANY oil
smoke at all.

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Bob I - 07 Sep 2007 03:20 GMT

Were valve seals properly installed? If rings were the problem I would
expect smoke on deceleration. Smoke on acceleration is likely intake
related.

> I had a good 2-day run on the back roads south from Wash. state to N.Calif.
> Labor Day weekend with my son in my 63 Roadster. We left without approx. 400
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> pulling hills, etc. Any ideas or knowledge on getting them to seat
> correctly? Thanx- lib

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Tom in Missouri - 07 Sep 2007 16:23 GMT

Good catch Bob and Ric. I tunnel-visioned on this one and missed this
important comment in his description.

When it is one side only, it usually points to a head or the intake gasket
leaking. Taking a can of ether and squirting around the intake gasket and
shooting a little down the oil filler will show if the gasket seal is
sucking air/oil. It doesn't take much inside the oil filler, just a short
squirt to make the engine rev up.

Otherwise, it is probably knurled valve guides. Everyone knurls them, and
they seem to leak afterwards. Also, the standard small block oil seals seem
to be a weak link in oil consumption. So do the racing seals. I like the
umbrella seals available (we used to use big block ones) and that often
stops a lot. But puffing on acceleration is probably a head that is 1.
leaking at the lower intake gasket seal, 2. cracked intake runner (rare), or
bad valve guide.

I had a 327 that would fog like crazy on acceleration, only in hard left
turns. Never did get that one fixed. Well, actually I did. Pulled it and
replaced it with another engine. LOL

> The driver-side bank exhaust is puffing a bit of smoke when pulling away
> from a stop. It was a bored when re-built, new rings, etc. It seems to me

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lib - 08 Sep 2007 03:50 GMT

Thanx for all the input. Will explore some of the ideas this week-end.- lib

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