Buddy of mine up in Washington State, an engine builder called me yesterday to let me know he found rings that will work on the 241 Hemi he’s building for me. As some of you know getting parts for these old motors is getting hard. When we talked at the beginning of the build he’d done some research and found the rings for aChev Corvair would work. As it turns out that wouldn’t work in that the rings are only available up to .020. So, back to the drawing board. Well, turns out Hastings offers a molly ring ring for the Oldsmobile 260 that goes to .060. He also said the Ford 221 will work. Go figure. Another bit of good news is that the custom high compression pistons and pins I ordered are all within the same weight as the stock pistons. So, for those of you contemplating using a obsolete engine in your Hotrod don’t give up. There’s plenty of alternatives in terms of parts available, just have to do the research.
I know what you mean. Sometimes, you just have to measure everything up, and then reverse engineer it for the OE application.
Years ago when I was into antique fire trucks, I found out from Sandy @ Olson's Gaskets that Chevrolet 235 rings fit the Seagrave 400 series V-12 motors. Had to buy two sets though.
In the late 60's, a friend of mine was overhauling a 50's Harley duoglide. He went to town and came back with rings. When I asked where he got them, the answer was a Ford tractor had the same bore and ring. Never forget that usually nobody is as interested in your project as you so the burden of research and measuring is on you.
Many moons ago I was rebuilding a CB750 Honda 4 that had been bored out to a 900 cc. I reused the pistons , just bored some 750 barrels but couldn't get replacement rings. I ended up using 1st oversize Kawasaki 900 rings but because the oil ring land wasn't wide enough we machined the land wider and used an extra oil ring spacer to fill the gap. That was in 1984 and engine has been running since. Just goes to show that there are always alternatives.
Those are good examples of what a good machinist can do. Research is part of the job. I have a friend that is a machinist. He has a nice shop that does production work. Runs of 500 or so of the same thing. He is a car guy but will not do much car stuff. His reasoning is that he does not have enough time to look up what spec's he needs. The production work provides him with all of that.
That was likely through Weavers rings which was a buddy of Sandy's. Paul Weaver has since passed and his inventory was sold to Dave Reed who is like a black hole and tough to buy from.
My 1942 Harley didnt have a proper modern style oil ring. The machinist made my ring groves wider and I used lawnmower rings
Who is the engine builder in Washington? I'm having trouble locating someone to do the valves in my 8BA.
Unfortunately for me and a lot of other car guys fro WA state most of the really good old school machines have gone or are going away. I’m in a quandary now in that I live in Arizona and the number of good shops have gone away or are so backed it would take years to get any work done. My motor and several others are the last he’s going to do. He wants to work on his projects. If you shoot me a PM I’ll give you his number.
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