Sup guys,
I want to confirm on this, if I got the Long Rod Howell bottom end kit. and I buy the JE piston rings from concept illusion, they will fit right?

coz the long rod kit comes with different rod and piston, so I just want to make sure all JE piston uses the same piston rings
(of course 0.020 over for mine)

Thanks.
Gil

Gil, keep it in one post. Your question was answered already. Now what is the difference of long rod to stock? offset wristpin, custom rod. There is nothing modified about the rings. .020 over regular piston rings will work with .020 over longrod pistons. .020 over is .020 over.

Thanks, just want to make sure.

I used the total seals that came with the je's. I have seen quite a few people that hate those, hope mine turn out good.

Actually, no - the longrod uses a different oil ring setup than standard - they use an "oil ring stbilizer" below the oil baffler ring set.

Don't believe me? Ask grain, he just got hosed by this.

Originally posted by gilee_8
Sup guys, I want to confirm on this, if I got the Long Rod Howell bottom end kit. and I buy the JE piston rings from concept illusion, they will fit right? coz the long rod kit comes with different rod and piston, so I just want to make sure all JE piston uses the same piston rings (of course 0.020 over for mine) Thanks. Gil

There should have been rings in your kit when you ordered, the kit comes complete. God if the rings were missing call us asap, don't going buying a set. I'll next day out the correct total seals if they were missing.

Don't use some off the shelf ring, because we specify the ring grooves in the pistons they make for us. They also take ring sports because of the oil ring location in relation to the wrist pin.

That xtra oil ring support is a bitch, it keeps wanting to slip under the oil rings. Im installing the pistons tonight, I'll let you know how it goes.

ok...
So you saying, I cannot use any set of rings except the total seal rings that comes with it?

AFter talking to Gary, I tend to use total seal rings, but I want to make sure on this.

Can I use JE piston rings (.020 over) and use that oil ring supporter? or it just DOESN"T WORK???

kinda sounds like those je rings will not work.

i used hastings rings from howell. you can use any ring thats .020 over and for this car. but you need to use the support ring. it looks like a compression ring, that you stick on the bottom of the oil groove.

also gary, you guys are not good at making next day deliveries. even when you ship wrong parts.

I just installed these last night, it was a BIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. That stupid stablizer ring kept the oil ring from sitting correctly. It took a couple of hrs of tediouse work to get them all in. The pistons move pretty freely so I guess they are in correctly. If I had known those would be like that I would have ordered the standard kit, not the long rod kit. I really don't think I will be able to tell the power diff on anything but a dyno anyway.

If it's that hard to install.... I am worrying maybe even the machine shop won't do it good.

??? maybe they just install it, and let it be!

.... worried.
Gil

lol, it took me like 20 minutes to re-ring all the pistons, and have them bolted into the block in the car.

John, were yours .40 over? I think that was/is part of the problem. I think they were a bit small on that land. I have done ton's of pistons and these were absolutly the hardest I have ever done. I can do a set of 4 in about 20 min too, these were not so easy. Wouldn't have been too bad but the clearance for all the rings was like 0.000000000001 with that extra ring in there. If the oil support ring was out I would say I could put them in no problem. I had my machine shop put the rings on the pistons, I put them into the car myself etc ect.

Originally posted by grain
i used hastings rings from howell. you can use any ring thats .020 over and for this car. but you need to use the support ring. it looks like a compression ring, that you stick on the bottom of the oil groove.

Total Seal Rings start as Hastings Rings. They buy Hastings and then modify them, to make the gapless second.

Originally posted by grain also gary, you guys are not good at making next day deliveries. even when you ship wrong parts.

We don't make next day deliveries, the shipping company does. Once it leaves us we have no control over it. All we can do is ship the item, once it leave us the shipping company has total control.

Originally posted by grain also gary, you guys are not good at making next day deliveries. even when you ship wrong parts.

We don't make next day deliveries, the shipping company does. Once it leaves us we have no control over it. All we can do is ship the item, once it leave us the shipping company has total control.


im saying, you guys sent out the wrong stuff to me, and then resent out the right stuff, but didnt next day it. so i had to wait over a weekend and more for the right stuff.

Originally posted by grain

Originally posted by grain also gary, you guys are not good at making next day deliveries. even when you ship wrong parts.

We don't make next day deliveries, the shipping company does. Once it leaves us we have no control over it. All we can do is ship the item, once it leave us the shipping company has total control.

im saying, you guys sent out the wrong stuff to me, and then resent out the right stuff, but didnt next day it. so i had to wait over a weekend and more for the right stuff.


We wouldn't normally next day it unless the orginal order was next day.

I would think that if a company send out the wrong part, they should be obligated to get the correct parts to the customer ASAP at their expense reguardless of the original shipping time. I don't see why the customer should have to suffer for a campany mistake. That's just not good business ethics. But, I used JE's on my JE pistons, they work great, couldn't be better. If the gaps are correct and the bore was good, everything should be fine.
~Jeffo


Hey, have you seen my tail lights? Yeah, well get used to looking at them.

I agree with you. The howell customer service sucks balls, there is no doubt. I will never purchase from them again. The only reason I did get from them was that special they were running on the longrod kit. I have emailed them a couple of times with some questions and gotten NO response. I once tried to ask a question on the message board and it got thrown out since "I did not follow the forum rules" to the letter. You would think after spending a grand at thier shop they would be a bit more helpful.