I talked to howell today and they said that the total seal rings are the ones to get for the bottom end kit. While the place where I am taking my engine to who has over 30 years experience says that the hastings are better to get becuase you want some gap when you use nitrous or when the engine heats up. so what is the better one to get??

If those are your choices I would go w/ the Hastings hands down. Total Seal suck ass for street cars. I have never talked to anyone that has used hastings so I couldn't tell you how they are. But I do know you souldn't go w/ the total seal. I have talked to a few people who said they didn't seat right and they smoked all the time. The guys had to tare down their block and re-ring it because of that.

I had hastings rings and Just broke one about 3 months ago. It lasted about a year of off and on driving with no boost. and low comp. I wasnt to happy still working on the rebuild.

ne1 else had any experience with hastings or total seal. I'm thinking about getting the hastings because I've heard about total seal being bad for the engine. Is there any other alternative? WHat are both rings made of? My auto teacher said the best rings to get are Molybdenum rings.

I once heard that total-seals weren't good for street cars. Something about the seal being so good that oil couldn't slide past it and go back into the pan. Normally, the combustion pressure would push oil past the rings and back into the pan. But when the seal is so good, oil gets trapped above the ring and has no choice but to be burned off. I think I saw that on one of those saturday TNN car shows. If all that is true, I can't say. I have heard those TNN guys say some dumb stuff before.


Corbin

'95 ESI-T
HRC+FMIC+ETC...



Gimme fuel...Gimme fire...Gimme that which I desire

I got this from Armond's site.

http://www.armond30.com/adp/smartquestions.html

Why does ADP not endorse total seal rings in street cars?

Well, that is a good question. Every internal combustion engine creates cylinder pressure. This pressure is translated into torque
usually, but it isn't usu. completely "trapped". since oil must lubricate the cylinder walls, oil is pushed up by the oil rings. with the
total seal top rings, there is virtually no "blow by" under average cylinder pressure. since there is virtually no blow by, the oil stays
above the cylinder, causing pre and post ignition (detonation) and burning constantly. This is why most "street cars" equipped with
total seal rings burn oil. under normal driving conditions, there isn't enough cylinder pressrue to push the oil out, so it is burned.
Race cars benefit from total seal rings becasue they do not have "partial throttle" issues.


________________________________________________________________________________________
current status - No 3rd Gear synchro


http://hometown.aol.com/ohshootuhh/
www.Fast420A.com

i have the total seal rings and so far no smoke and 0 blowby. I am however going thru about a quart of oil every 500 miles. So i guess the rings are really sealing up lol. That or its just the new engine breaking in and eating up some oil...

I too have total seal rings and have never had a problem with it. Now i was told that there are certain ways to 'configure' the total seal rings when you're rebuilding the motor. For example, the guy that built mine set it up for boost and nitrous use. You can 'configure' the setup for just boost, just nitrous, or both, and of course the all motor option. I not quite sure exactly how to do it but it's in the installation instructions of the rings. Unfortunately, I don't have the instructions anymore so I'm just going by what I remember. But anyhow, my rebuild with the rings have been excellent. No problems. But I do need to continually check my oil, but that's because I have a leak somewhere that's unfixable and unfindable! hahahaha. Don't know where the hell it's coming from!!! :thumbsup

Why in that FAQ page do they not reccommend that we change from a modular to non-modular? I can't see how it could fail any more than just getting an upgrade.

setting up the rings for a turbo for nos is just a matter of making the gap bigger based on the conversion chart that came with the rings, i filed mine a little to get the gap corsponding to the chart that came with the total seal rings. If i remember correctle it was the bore dia times the percent corrsponding to your set up on the chart.

Hasting are crome which are better then cast and I feel the crome Hasting ring are good for street use,
while the moly rings are good for strip use
I think our stocker are cast.

>I had hastings rings and Just broke one about 3 months ago.
>It lasted about a year of off and on driving with no boost.
>and low comp. I wasnt to happy still working on the rebuild.
>

So how did that ring brake??
I have Hasting and have used them before on V8 rebuilds

i have the total seal and the rings for our car only have a total seal second ring, there is a standard upper ring and medium tension oil control ring. I have been having no problems with my rings. i do notice that there is almost no blowby. the rings have been working good for me, i think the issue with people not liking them is due to the different break in procedure, they say to immediately load the engine and drive it at highway speeds. i called them and talked to them and they informed me that since the seal of the second total seal ring is dependant on cylinder pressure that the break in should be somewhat loaded. after i did the rebuild i drove the car a hundred miles on the freeway and PCH varying the load on the engine and not holding any one rpm for a long time. my compression is all near 205 and i have had no problems with the rings yet, i do however have a valve that is not sealing right....if it's not one thing, it's another.
later
james

I've plenty of good luck with Hastings in all of the sb domestics I have rebuilt. I'd like to make a note that I saw about Chrome-moly though. Make sure that the cylinders are bored/honed with a stone that does NOT have a lubricant such as graphite. The rings will never seal and it will just eat oil for the life of the car. The Chrome-moly rings already have a lube built in.