Piston Rings: Keith Jones from Total Seal Explains What You Need to Know

Piston Rings: Keith Jones from Total Seal Explains What You Need to Know OnAllCylinders · Apr 20, 2026

Annotations will appear as you listen

0:00

36:27

Company

Summit Racing

Summit Racing is a major automotive retailer focused on performance parts and accessories. Because this is a Summit Racing–powered podcast, the discussion is likely geared toward practical, build-focused guidance for enthusiasts. It can be a helpful reference point for parts availability and common upgrade paths.

Term

piston ring

A piston ring is a small metal ring on the piston that helps the engine seal properly. It keeps combustion gases from leaking into the crankcase and also helps manage how much oil gets used. Better rings can mean less wear and better engine performance over time.

Company

Total Seal

Total Seal is a company that makes piston rings. Since this episode is about piston ring tech, their recommendations are likely based on how different ring designs perform in real engines. It’s useful to listen for what they suggest for your type of build.

Term

bracket racing

Bracket racing is a drag-racing format where competitors race to a preset “dial-in” time rather than trying to be the absolute fastest. It emphasizes consistency and reaction-time/ET management, which is why it often attracts people who are deeply into engine and tuning details.

Term

running super cop

“Super Cop” sounds like the name of a racing class or event. The key takeaway here is that the guest has experience across different types of racing, not just one.

Brand

GM

GM refers to General Motors, a major automaker with both production vehicles and a large motorsports/performance ecosystem. Here, Keith Jones mentions working through GM dealership chains and GM racing, which frames his background before joining Total Seal.

Term

gapless second rings

“Gapless” ring sets use a design where the ring end gap is minimized or eliminated, improving sealing consistency. “Second rings” refers to the second compression ring in the piston ring pack, which plays a major role in controlling blow-by and maintaining cylinder pressure.

Term

Warren Johnson

Warren Johnson is mentioned as someone in racing who cared about piston rings being consistent. The point is that if rings vary, sealing and performance can vary too.

Term

GM racing

GM racing is General Motors’ involvement in racing. The speaker is saying their racing connections helped them understand what top teams want from piston rings.

Term

micrometer

A micrometer is a tool for measuring very small distances accurately. It’s used to make sure piston rings are the right size before they’re installed.

Term

speed pros

“Speed Pros” is a brand of performance engine parts. The speaker is saying they used to just buy rings and install them, without fully understanding how precise the fit needs to be.

Term

tolerance

Tolerance is how accurately a part is made. With piston rings, if the ring and cylinder are made to fit closely, the engine seals better and wastes less oil and gas.

Topic

Formula One car

Formula One is referenced as an example of the extreme performance environment piston-ring technology can be used in. The point is that the same core sealing challenge exists across lawn mowers, drag racing, and top-tier motorsport, but the requirements scale dramatically.

Topic

pro stock car

Pro Stock is another drag racing class where engines are tuned for repeated high-performance runs. The reference is used to illustrate that ring technology must handle demanding cycles and maintain sealing performance over repeated pulls.

Topic

top fuel car

Top Fuel is drag racing where cars accelerate extremely hard. That kind of stress makes piston rings work under tough conditions, so durability and sealing matter a lot.

Part

gapless rings

Most piston rings have a small opening (a gap) so they can expand as the engine heats up. “Gapless” rings try to reduce that opening to improve sealing, but they’re more sensitive to fit and setup.

Concept

production level parts

Production level parts are made in large numbers with consistent quality. Racing parts often require more experimentation and tougher performance targets, so they’re more interesting to build.

Concept

race engines

Race engines are pushed much harder than normal driving engines. Because of the heat and pressure, piston rings have to seal and control oil extremely well to keep the engine healthy.

Term

turbos

“Turbos” refers to turbochargers, which force more air into the engine to increase power. Higher boost typically raises cylinder pressures and temperatures, which can increase demands on piston ring sealing and durability.

Concept

reinvent that wheel

They’re basically saying that as engines get pushed harder, the parts have to keep improving. So manufacturers and builders can’t just use the same ring design forever—they need better rings to keep working reliably.

Concept

1000 horsepower motor

They’re talking about building an engine that makes extremely high power—around 1,000 horsepower. When you do that, the engine parts have to handle much more pressure and heat, so things like piston rings become especially important.

Concept

internet and gear heads having access to a lot more information

They’re saying the internet makes it easier for car enthusiasts to learn from others. That helps people build engines more effectively because they can find tips, data, and proven combinations faster than before.

Topic

NHRA national events

NHRA is a big U.S. drag racing organization. They’re saying they do their tech talks at major drag racing events, where engine parts like piston rings get tested hard.

Concept

seal the compression

When the engine compresses the air-fuel mix, you want it to stay sealed so it can make power. If the piston rings don’t seal well, some of that pressure leaks out and the engine loses efficiency.

Concept

compression, spark bang, explosion

This is describing how an engine makes power: it squeezes the fuel-air mix, ignites it with a spark, and then burns it to create force. The piston rings have to seal and handle the heat during that whole process.

Concept

least amount of leakage getting by as possible

This describes minimizing “blow-by,” which is combustion gas that leaks past the piston rings into the crankcase. Less blow-by generally means better power, better fuel economy, and less contamination of engine oil.

Concept

transfer heat

Your engine makes a lot of heat, and it has to get rid of it. The piston rings help move heat from the piston to the cylinder wall and then into the cooling system so the engine stays in a safe temperature range.

Concept

heat out through the piston... wall to the water, water to the air

Heat has to travel from the hot engine parts into the coolant, and then the radiator uses airflow to cool that coolant down. If that heat can’t get out, the engine can run too hot and parts can wear faster.

Concept

cold fusion

Cold fusion is a claim that fusion could happen without the extreme heat normally required. In this conversation, it’s mentioned as an example of something that might not be pursued if it doesn’t look profitable or practical.

Concept

thermal transfer through the rings

Engines get extremely hot, and they have to move that heat away. The piston rings help carry heat from the piston area into the rest of the engine, so they matter for keeping temperatures under control.

Term

control the lubricant

“Controlling the lubricant” refers to managing how oil is distributed, metered, and retained in the cylinder. The goal is to maintain a proper oil film for friction reduction and wear protection while still allowing the rings to seal effectively.

Concept

oilless engines

Some engine ideas try to work with little or no engine oil. But in this discussion, the point is that fully oilless operation is still hard, and lubrication is still important for sealing and protection.

Concept

engine project that runs on water (hydrogen from water)

They’re talking about a concept where you use water as the starting point to make a fuel—specifically hydrogen. It’s an example of exploring alternative fuels beyond normal gasoline or diesel.

Term

oil is the gasket

Even when the cylinder wall isn’t perfectly smooth, a thin layer of oil can help fill the tiny gaps. That oil layer helps the rings seal better, like a gasket would.

Concept

ring seal despite cylinder-wall imperfections

Cylinder walls aren’t perfectly smooth in real life. The oil film can smooth over tiny rough spots so the rings can still seal tightly and keep gases from leaking.

Term

octane rating

Octane rating tells you how resistant the fuel is to “pinging” or knocking. If the fuel can’t handle the engine’s conditions, it can start burning in the wrong way and cause damage.

Term

detonation

Detonation is when the fuel-air mixture ignites in an uncontrolled, explosive way. Instead of a smooth burn, it “bangs,” which can hurt the engine fast.

Topic

HRA test down in Gainesville

They mention a racing test in Gainesville to show how tiny tuning changes can matter a lot. In racing, engines are pushed hard, so detonation can happen quickly if setup isn’t right.

Term

timing

Timing is when the spark happens during the engine cycle. If it’s too early, the engine can get too hot/pressurized and start knocking.

Concept

knock

Knock is when the engine starts “pinging” or burning unevenly. It’s a warning sign that the combustion is wrong, and racers often lose power to prevent it.

Term

wet combustion chamber

A wet combustion chamber means oil is getting into the cylinder where it shouldn’t. That oil can mess up how the fuel burns and can lead to knocking and damage.

Part

top ring

The top ring is the ring closest to the combustion area. Its main job is to keep the high-pressure gases from leaking down into the crankcase. Because it can’t be perfect all the time, other rings help make up the difference.

Part

oil ring

The oil ring is the ring that helps manage oil on the cylinder wall. It makes sure the engine doesn’t leave too much oil there (which can burn and smoke) or too little (which can increase wear).

Concept

ring package

A ring package is the full set of rings you install in an engine. The key idea is that the rings, piston, and cylinder have to be matched so they work together. If you pick rings meant for a totally different kind of engine use, they may not survive or seal correctly.

Concept

cylinder finish

Cylinder finish is how smooth (and what kind of texture) the inside of the engine cylinder is. The rings need the right surface to seat properly and control oil. If the cylinder surface is wrong, the rings can wear faster or not seal well.

Concept

honed right

Honing is the process of finishing the inside of the cylinder so the rings can seat correctly. If it’s not done right, the rings may not seal well and can wear out sooner. It’s one of the steps that has to match the rings you plan to use.

Concept

three stage nitrous engine

Nitrous oxide (NOS) adds extra power by injecting more oxygen into the engine. A “three stage” setup means it can add that power in steps, which makes the engine conditions much more intense. The speaker is saying the rings have to be built for that kind of stress.

Concept

burnout

A burnout is when you spin the tires while the car is mostly in place, and the engine is working hard. The speaker uses it to show that if the engine parts aren’t matched, they can fail quickly under heavy heat and load.

Concept

system

He’s saying the engine parts work together. Rings can only do their job well if the piston and cylinder surfaces and the oil are also right.

Concept

oil control

Oil control means the rings manage how much oil gets into the wrong places. Good oil control helps prevent the engine from burning oil.

Concept

eight rings

Earlier engines sometimes used more rings because the parts weren’t as precise and the surfaces weren’t as good. More rings helped them seal and manage oil.

Concept

lubrication on there

Lubrication is the thin layer of oil that keeps metal parts from grinding against each other. If the oil film is right, rings seal better and the engine lasts longer.

Concept

material technologies

Material technologies means newer metals and coatings used to make rings tougher and more wear-resistant. That can let engineers use less material while still keeping the engine sealed and lubricated.

Term

bore conformability

Bore conformability means the ring stays pressed against the inside of the cylinder. If it doesn’t stay in contact, you can lose sealing and performance, so this is a key design goal.

Term

aluminum blocks

An aluminum engine block changes shape more as it heats up than a cast-iron block. That movement can affect how well the piston rings seal, so ring design has to account for it.

Term

fuel management

Fuel management is how the engine computer chooses the right fuel amount for the current driving conditions. Getting it right helps the engine run smoothly and prevents problems from running too rich or too lean.

Concept

draw through and blow through carburetors

These are two old-school ways to put a carburetor in a turbo system. The problem is that when boost changes, the carburetor can’t always adjust fuel accurately enough, so the engine can run poorly or dangerously.

Term

fuel curves

Fuel curves are basically the “map” of how much fuel the engine gets as conditions change. If that map is wrong, the engine can run too rich or too lean.

Concept

engine management

Engine management is the car’s computer system that controls how the engine runs. It decides things like when to spark and how much fuel to use. Better engine computers let engineers design engine parts differently because the engine can be controlled more accurately.

Term

boosted engines

Boosted engines use forced induction to increase the amount of air entering the cylinders, which allows more power from a given engine size. Common forms include turbocharging and supercharging. Boost changes combustion pressures and temperatures, which influences piston ring design targets like sealing under higher cylinder pressures and controlling oil under more demanding conditions.

Term

turbocharged

Turbocharged means the engine has a turbo that squeezes more air into the cylinders. More air usually means more power, but it also means the engine parts see higher stress. That’s why ring design has to account for the tougher conditions.

Term

supercharged

Supercharged means the engine uses a belt-driven blower to push more air into the cylinders. More air can mean more power, but it also makes the engine work under higher stress. That affects how piston rings are engineered.

Concept

direct injected era

Direct injection means the fuel is sprayed straight into the engine’s combustion chamber. It lets the computer control fuel more precisely. Because the way the engine burns fuel changes, piston rings may need different design choices to handle the results.

Term

piston design

Piston design refers to the geometry and features of the piston—such as crown shape, ring land dimensions, and cooling provisions—that determine how the piston seals, sheds heat, and withstands combustion forces. Since piston rings are mounted on the piston, changes in piston design can drive changes in ring package requirements. The speaker is framing modern engines as “race car engines” in terms of how tightly engineered the internal components are.

Term

rod designs

Rod design is about the connecting rods inside the engine. They help transfer force from the piston to the crankshaft. Even though this part is about rings, the idea is that modern engines are designed as a complete system, not just one component.

Term

TRW piston

TRW makes engine parts like pistons. The speaker is using TRW as a historical example of older piston designs compared to today’s shorter, more compact setups.

Car

BMW 316S

The BMW 3 Series is a car made by BMW that’s designed to be comfortable for daily driving but also fun to drive. People talk about it in engine discussions because it has engines that can be modified, and the internal parts like pistons and rings matter for how well it handles more power. If someone is building an engine, they may choose parts based on what that engine needs.

Term

compression heights

Compression height is the vertical distance between the piston’s wrist-pin center and the piston crown. Shorter compression heights change where the rings sit relative to the combustion chamber, which drives the need for different ring sizes and ring-stack packaging.

Concept

OE

OE means the car manufacturer’s own design. The host is saying racing influences how manufacturers build engines, but manufacturers also have to meet rules and targets.

Term

detonate

Detonation is when the fuel-air mixture ignites in an uncontrolled way, causing a harsh pressure spike. It can damage engines, and this segment explains how modern design and engine control reduce that risk.

Term

crevice volume in the ring stack

Crevice volume is the tiny “pockets” around the piston rings where gases can get trapped. If those pockets are smaller, the engine is less likely to develop damaging knock/detonation.

Concept

push those compression ratios higher, run the engines leaner

Higher compression and “leaner” fueling are ways to get better efficiency. They can be harder on the engine if not controlled well, so modern design and computer tuning help keep everything stable.

Term

fuel economy emissions, tailpipe emissions standards

Car makers have to meet government rules for how efficient the car is and how clean the exhaust is. Those rules influence how the engine is designed and tuned, including details like piston and ring design.

Concept

thinner, lighter, stronger rings

Ring makers try to make rings that are lighter and thinner so the engine wastes less energy. But they still have to be tough enough to keep sealing properly when things get hot and pressurized.

Concept

dilemma of choice

Engine builders used to pick parts separately, and that meant you had to choose the right rings for the piston you wanted. Today some kits come pre-matched, which can simplify things but changes how you think about compatibility.

Part

cast, forged

Cast and forged pistons are made differently. Forged pistons are often stronger, while cast pistons can be lighter or cheaper depending on design. Since pistons expand and wear differently, the rings may need to be chosen to match.

Part

dish, domed

Dish and dome are shapes on the top of the piston. They change how much space is in the combustion area, which affects compression and how hard the engine works. That can influence what kind of rings you need to keep everything sealed and durable.

Concept

rings never came with the pistons

They’re saying that in the past, you usually bought rings separately from pistons. That gave builders more control to match rings to the exact engine they were building. Now some piston kits include rings automatically, which can be convenient but less customizable.

Concept

ring selection for the application

The episode emphasizes that the “ring set that comes with the piston” is often chosen to hit a cost target, not necessarily to survive extreme conditions. Selecting rings should be based on the actual power/pressure environment (e.g., forced induction or nitrous), not just the piston model.

Part

cast iron ring set

Cast iron rings are a traditional, affordable ring material. They can be fine for everyday or mild performance, but they may wear out faster when you add big power like nitrous or heavy boost.

Concept

piston and ring combination

The piston and the rings work together as a system. If the rings that come with a piston aren’t meant for your power level, you may need different rings or a different piston setup so everything lasts.

Concept

matching parts to the build (don't buy by price)

The speaker emphasizes that performance parts must be selected as a system—ring type/coating, cylinder finish, and the engine’s power goals—rather than chosen purely by cost. This “fitment” mindset helps prevent premature wear or failure when the engine is pushed harder than the parts were designed for.

Part

piston kit

A piston kit is the set of parts you install when rebuilding or upgrading an engine’s pistons. It usually includes the piston rings, and the rings need to be the right type for how your engine is built and how hard you’re pushing it.

Concept

right ring for what you're doing

Not all piston rings are the same. The “right” ring depends on how you’re using the engine—like how much boost or nitrous you’re running—because the rings have to handle the heat and pressure.

Concept

high boost

“Boost” is extra air pressure from a turbo or supercharger. More boost usually means more power, but it also means the engine is under more stress, including the piston rings.

Part

powdered metal rods

Powdered metal connecting rods are manufactured from metal powder and sintered, then formed into rod shapes. They can be cost-effective for production engines, but they may not tolerate extreme power/heat cycles as well as stronger aftermarket forged rods—especially when combined with high boost or nitrous.

Part

molly coated ring

A molly-coated ring has a special surface treatment that helps it wear in and last longer against the cylinder wall. When you’re making more power, that coating can help the rings hold up better.

Term

100 shot

When people say “100 shot,” they mean a nitrous dose that’s expected to add a certain amount of power. Bigger shots usually mean more power, but also more stress on the engine.

Term

adjustable

“Adjustable” here means the nitrous system can be set to different levels. That’s important because you want to stay within what the engine can safely handle.

Term

500

Here, “500” is being used as a bigger target than the initial plan. The takeaway is that if you’re going to push that hard, you can’t rely on a mild setup—you need to build for the higher load.

Concept

stock bottom end

“Bottom end” is the engine’s lower rotating assembly (crankshaft, rods, pistons, bearings). The host says a stock bottom end can be okay only if you keep the power/abuse “in check,” because nitrous and aggressive tuning can exceed what stock components were designed to handle.

Term

high octane fuel

High octane fuel helps prevent the engine from “knocking,” which is harmful. If someone turns up the timing to make more power, you often need higher octane to keep it safe.

Term

93 octane

Octane is how well the fuel resists knocking in the engine. If the speaker says you need 93 octane, it usually means lower-octane fuel could cause knock and potentially damage the engine.

Term

87 octane

87 octane is regular gas. The speaker’s point is that using 87 when the engine needs higher octane can lead to knocking and faster engine trouble.

Term

ring gap

Piston rings have a tiny gap at their ends. That gap matters because the ring gets bigger when the engine heats up—too little gap can cause the ring ends to touch and fail, while too much gap lets more combustion gases leak by.

Term

end gap

End gap is the clearance at the ends of a piston ring when installed. It’s typically set at room temperature (static gapping) and then chosen to account for how much the ring will expand during operation, preventing the ring from butting while maintaining sealing.

Concept

blow by

Blow-by is when some of the engine’s combustion gases sneak past the piston rings instead of staying in the cylinder. If it’s too much, it can foul the oil and generally means the rings aren’t sealing well.

Term

butt the ring

If the piston ring gap is too tight, the ring can expand until its ends touch. That can lead to the ring getting damaged because it can’t handle the heat and movement safely.

Term

mechanical fitment issues

Mechanical fitment issues are mistakes in how parts are physically matched and installed. With piston rings, the most common problems are incorrect ring gap or rings not sitting correctly, which can quickly lead to failure.

Term

D wall

“D wall” is an old shortcut people used to estimate how deep piston rings should be. It was based on cylinder measurements, but the point here is that modern setups don’t follow that simple rule anymore.

LIVE

This is the On All Cylinders podcast powered by Summit Racing.

Your host for today is Summit Racing's Paul Sockless with special guest Keith Jones from

Total Seal.

Here we go.

To quote Beyonce, if you like it, then you should have put a piston ring on it.

Yes, folks, we're talking all about piston ring tech today on the On All Cylinders podcast.

Paul Sockless in your host chair.

And to help us out in that endeavor, we brought in Keith Jones from Total Seal Piston Rings.

Keith has an incredible amount of knowledge on this subject.

And more importantly, he's really good at explaining it all.

So Keith, thank you for joining us.

And how are we doing today?

We're doing great.

Hi, everybody.

It's a wonderful day.

It's sunny.

The sun's shining.

I'm going to set another record for the hottest day of the year and hey, it's Arizona.

That's where we're at.

That's all part of the deal.

And I know what you're thinking.

What a glorious day to talk all about piston rings, right?

Absolutely.

OK, so we'll get to that topic here momentarily.

But first, I want some context.

I want to hear it from you.

How did you become a gearhead and what brought you to Total Seal?

That's interesting.

I'm originally from the suburbs of Chicago.

Dad was a gearhead, got to hang out at, you know, for those older folks out there, remember

Arnie the farmer, Bezwick's shop, got to hang out at Arnie's shop when I was a kid.

So that was always an exciting thing.

Still in contact with Arnie.

Still sharp guy.

I mean, he's his mid 90s and man, he just, he's on it.

So I hope to get even closer to that and have that wit and wisdom about myself.

But kind of been around this my whole life, you know, always been around the racing, always

been around cars, kind of born into it.

It's in my DNA, however you want to say it.

But always been around this stuff, you know, from bracket racing to running super cop to

being around this.

I'm a car guy.

I'm a gearhead.

I love it.

Couldn't imagine doing anything else.

I've been with Total Seal for 29 years and prior to that, I worked through different

outlets of the GM dealership chains and GM racing, worked at GM performance parts.

So kind of got a background in this the whole time.

And when I first started working at Total Seal, we kind of just did gapless second

rings is what we did.

It's what we're known for.

Our company started in 1967.

Started here in Phoenix, Arizona by the Moriarty family, Joe Moriarty, God rest his soul.

Great family.

Great man.

His son, Joey's mom, Joey's mom, Donna, Joe's wife, just great family.

When I first started was myself and another gentleman by the name of Jim Edwards in the

sales department, but really saw the picture right off the bat through some of my relationships

with people through GM racing at the time, like Warren Johnson, the professor.

And the question came up, you know, hey, Warren, what, you know, I know where you get your

rings.

I know what brand you're buying.

It's, you know, what don't you like about him?

He goes, man, I'd like eight rings that are all the same.

I go, what are you talking about?

You know, you're running 043, Dr. Mollie's, he goes, I've got Kurt sitting on the floor.

He's got a micrometer, sleeves, the rings, and he's stacking them all up.

You know, that one's that size, that one's that size, you know, this one's this size

making piles.

And I'm like, really, you know, and I didn't know that.

I didn't know a lot about piston rings and, you know, I put them in, built lots of engines,

you know, go down to Loper's Performance here in Phoenix, you know, buy my speed pros,

throw them in, and away I went.

And it really got us going down the path at looking how parts are manufactured.

What can we do to hold better tolerance?

How do we build a better mousetrap?

And about a year after I came on, Matt Hartford came to work for the company, now president

and CEO, and we started down the path of how do we build a better mousetrap, man?

How do we hold the tolerances that need to be held?

How do we build parts that, you know, not only can go in a guy's lawn mower, but can

go in his pro stock car or his top fuel car or proudly in the Formula One car?

How do we change this?

How do we make this better?

And that's been our path ever since, you know, looking at different ways of making the parts,

different ways of inspecting the parts, different materials, different coatings, and it is a

driving force behind this company has been, you know, was then and is today.

And it's how we've become who we are.

It's not just about gapless rings.

It's about all the rings.

And the one thing that, you know, we're not I'll say weighed down by if you want to

call it that is doing production level parts.

Can we do that stuff?

Yes, we can.

But there's just nothing exciting about making a million of these all the same.

Boring as hell.

We love the challenges of, you know, new applications, new environments had a meeting

this morning, we get asked to take it to here.

So we take it to here.

Well, the guys building race engines, they never stop here.

Soon as we get them apart that works really good here.

Well, let's go to here.

So it's always being pushed.

You know, it was a, you know, you and I were talking a little earlier about, you know,

turbos and LSs and things like that.

And the other day was like, oh, man, 600 horsepower.

Now it's like, oh, man, 1000 horsepower next week will be 1500 horsepower.

They never stop.

So that means we can't stop.

So we have to constantly try to reinvent that wheel and make a better ring.

Yeah, you know, you struck on an interesting point.

The idea of 1000 horsepower motor is a very attainable thing right now.

I mean, I think that's a result of the internet and gear heads having access

to a lot more information than they than they used to, even as recently as 10,

15 years ago, which brings us to this conversation, right?

Like say we've got an engine builder that wants to take their build to the next

level or someone that's never really taken a cylinder head off before.

So let's start with the basics.

What is a piston ring?

What does it do? What job does it serve?

Can you tell us about that?

Well, sure. And I will I'm going to put a plug in right now.

We do a thing called, you know, the total seal tech talk.

We do do this at certain NHRA national events.

So if you're interested in, you know, and having some actual sit down one on one

time access to us. Hey, come to the races.

We'd love to have you.

You know, we've done, you know, many of the super summit events.

We do get out there.

So search us out and we'll and we'd love to walk you through all that stuff

and have some one on one time.

But the functions of a piston ring are called the multiverse.

They've got a lot of jobs.

So we've not only got to seal the compression, we've got fuel.

We've got compression.

We've got spark bang.

We've got an explosion.

We've got that driving force pushing the piston down on the rod,

rod to the crank, crank to the flat, you know, all the way,

working its way to the differential to make this thing move forward.

So we not only have to conceal the combustion, you know, we want to seal all

that in there. We want to harness all of that.

We can.

We want the least amount of leakage getting by as possible.

So that's one function.

Next function is transfer heat.

We get the heat out through the piston, piston to the ring, ring to the wall,

wall to the water, water to the air.

You know, we've got to get the heat out.

You know, if we're going to make more power, we've got to make more heat.

That's just the way it is.

That's physics. I'll say this.

You know, I'm just I think cold fusions out there, but they're not letting us have it.

So there's probably no money in cold fusion

since it we're going to give it away.

So, you know, as long as we're making power, we're making heat.

We've got to have a way to get rid of that heat.

And the bulk of that thermal transfer is through the rings, like I said,

ring to the piston, piston all the way through the engine.

So we've got to get rid of that heat.

Another function is we have to control the lubricant.

We have to control the oil.

We have worked on oilless applications.

We are always working with people on the next generation of engines,

the new prototypes that are out there.

I won't name names.

We're working on an engine project that runs on water.

You know, we'll just say we take the hydrogen out of the water and turn it into a fuel.

So we work on all kinds of stuff and we worked on oilless engines as well.

But at this time, we still need oil.

We still need a lubricant.

We've got to lubricate that part.

Oil is the gasket.

It's what seals the ring to the cylinder wall.

It allows us to get away with little imperfections in the board, filling those

voids with oil that creates a good ring seal.

But at the same time, we don't want that oil into the combustion chamber.

That throws the octane rating of the fuel that pulls that octane rating down and

throws the engine into detonation.

I was just at an HRA test down in Gainesville this past weekend and top fuel

guys were there, pro stock guys, a bunch of guys, and I was working with one guy

and I got to look at a lot of the data.

One degree, they put one degree too much timing in the engine and it knocked 100

horsepower out of it because it started to throw the engine into detonation.

So it can be that fragile.

And bottom line is we're getting a wet combustion chamber.

We're going to pull that engine into detonation.

That breaks parts if we do it long enough and it kills horsepower.

A dry engine is a happy engine.

So that's another function of the piston ring is so we've got to seal the compression.

We've got to give it a way to get the heat out and we've got to keep the

combustion chamber dry.

So those are your three basic functions of the ring.

Now, just to clear up my confusion, when you say ring, you're kind of referring

to the entire package of a ring.

Like you crack open an engine and look at a piston, you don't just see one ring.

You see a series of rings on that piston head, right?

You see the package.

We've got the top ring trying to hold compression.

We're trying.

We've got the second ring in there.

It's really a dual purpose part.

It's going to hold compression.

It's going to back up that top ring.

It's the wingman.

And it's also the wingman of the oil ring because the oil ring is not the perfect device either.

None of them are perfect.

So the second ring is there and it's an important part of the package.

It's there to catch what the top ring misses and catch what the oil ring misses

and find that right balance of compression, sealing and oil control.

Not putting in too much friction or not enough load on the wall in scraping.

And the one thing that we kind of, you know, we do have a list of questions that we wanted

to talk about, but it is something to keep in mind.

It's a package.

It's all got to work together.

The right rings on the wrong piston with a crummy cylinder finish or the best ring,

great piston, bad bore finish, keep mixing this up any way you want.

It's all got to work together.

We've got to make sure the cylinders are honed right.

We've got the right piston for the job.

We've got the right rings for the job.

I'm not going to put a NASCAR ring package on a three stage nitrous engine.

It wouldn't get through the burnout.

It's going to die.

You know, everything has to be right for the environment that we're asking it

to live in and work in.

And when we get it right, it's spectacular.

But remember, it's a system.

It's all got to work together.

Now, earlier, you mentioned your background and you've been doing this a very long time.

And I'm sure you've seen a ton of advancements in piston ring technology.

So can you kind of talk about that?

Has has it changed?

Oh, significantly.

So, you know, we go back into the 1800s, you know, rings were just plain cast iron.

It's what they had to work with.

Again, back to the system, the cylinders weren't that good.

The pistons weren't that great.

So what did we do?

We just kept putting more of them on there.

I've seen rings, pistons, I should say, that had eight rings on them.

And it was that's what it took to get it sealed up, get oil control.

We just kept piling more and more parts on it.

But as time has gone on, our manufacturing capabilities have gotten better.

We can produce better pistons, flatter, rounder, proper shapes.

We can produce straighter, rounder cylinders with the right cylinder finishes

to produce that good ring seal to get that lubrication on there.

And all that means I can do less with the rings.

I don't need eight eighth inch cast iron rings on this big piston to make this work.

I can produce much thinner parts.

And part of that is also the exposure to different material technologies.

We commonly work with stainless steels, carbon steels,

stalites, inking, you know, the exotic materials.

And it's finding the part that's right for the temperature of the environment.

But the modern material technologies allow us to build much, much thinner rings,

not only from the thickness point of the ring, from the radial depth.

The rings are getting shallower in the groove.

So it is allowing us better bore conformability.

We're dealing with a lot of aluminum blocks today that weren't around before.

Aluminum as good as we've got it.

It still moves around, you know, compared to a cast iron block, it just moves a lot.

So the material technologies allowed us to radically reduce, you know,

the ring thicknesses, the depths, the temp, you know, the new tech,

the new material technologies handle heat much better.

It allows us to run less mass in the part, but yet get that transfer of heat into the wall.

That's a big, big part of what's going on today.

And then just engine management systems, you know, that's a big part.

You know, everybody says, what's the biggest thing that's happened?

And I say the computer, you know,

you look at how well tuned and how refined these engines are today in fuel management,

timing management, you know, the whole tune up, as I like to call it.

It's amazing, you know, the stuff that we can do and get away with.

You and I talked earlier before we started recording about, again,

turbos and just the disaster.

They were back in the 70s and 80s with draw through and blow through carburetors.

You can never get the fuel curves right.

But now today with that computer management,

look at what we're doing.

Look at the power levels we're hitting and the root of all that is the computer.

That is really the big, big game changer.

And, you know, the rings are a part of that package

because we've got such great engine management today.

I don't have to build these big, heavy, thick parts

because the engine management is all over the place.

We've got, you know, nice little windows and everything runs in now.

Great tuning.

And it allows me to put a thinner, lighter, tougher ring in it

than having a stack of big cast iron rings in there.

Let's take that a step further.

Now, in this modern era, boosted engines, you know,

turbocharged, supercharged engines are becoming increasingly common

on like daily driver commuter cars.

And like the Gen 5 LT Series V8 is over a decade old now.

So we're well into the direct injected era, too.

So I'm going to assume that that is impacting the way you design

and develop a piston ring package, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Again, things that we look at with a modern engine

from where I sit, a lot of these engines, many, many,

they're just little race car engines.

You know, if you look at the piston design, the rod designs,

you know, we're a little short box box style forging instead

of the old big full rounds like you had in your small block Chevy,

your old TRW piston with 564s, 564s, 316s.

You know, we're dealing with much shorter compression heights.

You know, we've learned, you know, racing has taught the OE a lot.

And at the same time, they teach us a lot.

So they are really little race car engines today.

And they demand smaller rings.

We've got less area in the piston.

We're taking those top rings.

And the old day, you'd look at the top ring.

The top ring would typically be down 250,000 from, you know,

the top of the ring groups.

There's OE engines today that run the top ring down 75,000.

They're that close to the top.

That's old, that's old super stock drag race stuff that, you know,

if you missed that tune up, detonated, boy, you killed the ring.

But with today's, again, those engine management systems,

we don't have that problem.

We want to reduce what's called crevice volume in the ring stack.

If we can do that, we're less likely to detonate.

Back to we can push those compression ratios higher, run the engines leaner.

Remember, the OEs want to deliver the power that you want,

but they've also got to meet fuel economy emissions, tailpipe emissions standards

and defining and refining these engines, you know, more and more and more

demands that we put thinner, lighter, stronger rings in there

that will handle the higher temperatures that we deal with today.

It really is amazing how high tech engines have gotten just in the past 10,

15 years or so.

But let's take a look at piston ring choice from like a backyard

engine builder's perspective, you know, one of the good dilemmas

we have nowadays is the dilemma of choice, especially when it comes to pistons.

You've got cast, forged, different alloys, dish, domed.

How does the exact piston choice impact the piston ring package you need?

That's a that's a difficult answer to question or question to answer.

What happens a lot of, you know, and this is not against any saying anything

about any piston manufacturer out there.

But what's happened today in a lot of respects, when I first started

doing this, rings never came with the pistons, never did.

Only time you ever got a ring with a piston, if you were buying a

you know, a motorcycle piston, they'd always come with the ring.

So in the automotive world, the performance world, you know, you went out,

you picked your piston, you picked your head, you pick camshaft.

You know, it was an olacart menu. There was no happy meal.

You picked out everything.

And part of that was picking out the rings and you had those choices.

In today's world, a lot of the rings that are supplied with the pistons,

they just come with the pistons. You picked your brand of piston.

They had the compression ratio you want and it comes with rings.

And I'm not picking on any of that, but they aren't necessarily always

the right ring for what you're doing.

They're what fit the price point of the piston that you're purchasing.

So, you know, that piston manufacturer goes, OK, we've designed this piston for this.

We've got to sell it for this.

We can afford to put this much money into the ring that essentially they're

giving away with the piston that are really not charging for it as part of the package.

So is it always the right ring, the best ring for what you're doing?

Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.

That's one of those things you want to do a little research

when you're selecting that piston to make sure the ring,

if you're going to use the ring that comes with that piston,

is it the right ring for what you're doing?

You know, if you buy, you know, a hyper eutectic piston,

there's a lot of good hypers out there and it comes with a plain old cast iron

ring set that's a nice economy kit, but yet you're planning on putting

a 250 shot of nitrous or 15 pounds of boost on it.

That piston may hold up just fine, but trust me, that ring's not going to last.

It's not made for that.

So we have to kind of educate ourselves, not only on the piston that we're purchasing.

If it's coming with rings, is that the right ring for that application?

And if it's not, well, then, of course, we can supply you something

that is going to be the right ring for what you're doing,

or maybe you need to look at another piston and ring combination

from the same supplier, maybe a different supplier.

I don't know.

To make sure the whole, again, like we talked about earlier, it's a package

to make sure the package is right for what you're doing.

It's important.

So, you know, as far as like hypers or, you know, 26 18s, 40 to 32s,

different allies, there's a lot of different products out there.

Again, it's really doing the research to make sure what you're doing.

That part's the right thing for what you're doing.

Just don't just don't buy it by the price.

You know, make sure that it's the right thing for what you do.

I get a lot of customers that they'll buy a piston kit.

And I'll say this, you know, they're going into their mod or their LS or whatever.

And I, you know, we're looking at the rings and it's a Mali coated top ring.

I'm alive.

Then it was a great coating.

It's very diverse.

It's very versatile.

It lets you get away with a lot of different cylinder finishes.

And it's been around a long time.

The one thing it doesn't do a good job at is handling big cylinder pressure,

detonation, things like that.

Mali is a great coating, but it doesn't necessarily stick to a ring very well.

And we throw 25 pounds of boost on that thing.

It rattles a little bit, does its thing, Mali's gone.

Mali comes out, it's in the skirt, it's in the cylinder, it ate it up.

And all of this damage that occurred happened

because it just wasn't the right ring for what you're doing.

And so like anything, it's a matter of doing

a little investigation to make sure you're getting the right thing for what you're doing.

Speaking of getting the right things for what you need,

I'm going to take the perspective of a hypothetical summit racing customer.

OK, this customer will have no problems bolting on a set of upgraded cylinder heads,

maybe even a turbo kit or a healthy dose of nitrous,

but won't dive much deeper into the engine.

Same rod, same crank, same pistons.

Now, we all know what high boost and oodles of nitrous can do

to a rotating assembly that's not prepared for it.

But what about the piston rings?

Is it a concern that you don't change out or upgrade your piston rings

when you're doing other engine modifications?

How big of a deal is that?

It's a fairly large concern.

I'll give it this way.

You know, there's a lot of guys out there that like to go by, you know, the five three

LS engine, you know, there's a lot of articles about there, about their thousand horsepower,

you know, factory stock LS, you know, and you can do that.

If it's got a really good conservative tune up, you know, what I like to say is

powdered metal rods have a tendency to go back to their natural state, powdered metal.

You've got to be careful.

That engine does use a molly coated ring.

So if you put it together and you've got a mild amount of boost,

you've got a reasonably good tune up in it, you probably don't have a lot of concerns.

But it's when we start pushing the boundaries, we start taking it to that edge want more.

You know, like anything else, I get guys will come.

Oh, it's going to be a nitrous engine.

OK, well, how much nitrous you got?

Well, I'm going to put a hundred shot on it.

I go, is that kid adjustable?

Well, yeah, how big does it go?

All to go 500. OK, you're going to end up at 500.

So let's build it for 500.

Well, no, no, I'm only going to put a hundred on it.

No, well, today, what do you do in tomorrow?

Because we never stop.

We always got to turn it up more.

So we have to always consider that.

What is the worst case scenario?

And building that stock bottom end is fine.

As long as we will say, keep it in check, keep it rained in, you know, don't go crazy with it.

I'll give a perfect example.

Good friend of mine's son, and a coyote, took it to a place, a local guy,

and they put the tune up on it and he was warned right off the bat.

You've got to run a high octane fuel in this thing.

We've got the timing turned up.

We've got all these things turned up.

It's a stock bottom end.

You have to run at least 93 octane in this thing.

Well, he's on his way home from a date.

You know, whatever it was goes in, rolls in the 87 thing rattles its way home.

Whammo, it's over.

So that's the thing to always remember with a stock bottom end.

If we if we play within the rules, we can get away with things.

But if we play outside of that box, it's going to go to a heck of a hand basket pretty quick.

Happens faster than you think it always does.

Now, we've been talking for a while now, but I want to make sure we touch

on a topic that's that's really critical to any piston ring discussion.

And that is ring gap.

Can you talk about the role ring gap plays on a piston head and specifically

given the history of total seal, talk about gapless rings, too.

Absolutely. So the ring gap, we've got to, you know, it's it's finding

that fine balance in the engine.

You know, we want, you know, we're gapping the ring static at room temperature

and we're speculating how much is that ring going to expand.

And, you know, when it's running, we want to get that gap as close as we can

to get that blow by number down.

But we've got to make sure we don't butt the ring in.

So a lot of things that I see in engines, you know, failures are what I'll

call mechanical fitment issues.

Either they didn't have enough end gap on the ring or the rings bottomed

out in the ring group.

They didn't really properly inspect the part.

You know, years ago, we had some standards on the depth numbers on rings.

It was called D wall.

It's a, you know, delta wall board divided by 22.

That rule went out the window 20 years ago.

It's all over the place.

So you always want to test fit all your parts.

Make sure that none of the rings come bottom out in the ring groups.

Take that ring, just push it down into the groove.

When it goes in, it should always be below the edge of the land.

It should never stick out.

If it's sticking out, you need to stop.

You are looking for a problem.

Same thing happens with the end gapping.

So we want to make sure we've got plenty of gap.

If you're not sure, you know, let the engine tell you gap it.

Where do you think it needs to be?

Or call us.

We'll give you some suggestions.

Take that end gap, look at it.

If you butter ring it, it's going to have two shiny witness marks.

You'll see it.

So the engine will tell you what it's doing.

If we really look at the parts when we come back out.

But an answer to that, though, is our gapless ring.

So the gapless ring eliminates that possibility.

Put it in, gap it big.

Let's say you're putting a small block Chevy together at a 10 to 1 pump gas.

You know, that kind of thing.

You call me, ask me for a ring recommendation on gap.

I'm going to tell you, I'll throw the top rings in around 20, 18 to 22.

You know, in that neck of the woods.

Second rings, put them in, I don't know, 24, 25, 26.

Somewhere in that neck of the woods, you're going to be just fine.

But then I'll get the guy calls me, ask me that same thing.

Well, again, I got that adjustable nitrous kit, might go to 500.

You know, now I'm going to tell him, OK, put a gapless ring in it.

Put that top ring in 32, 35.

I don't care. Put it in big, put it in, put it in way big.

It doesn't care. It's gapless.

Now, the beautiful thing about that, the gapless is the best one

I'll call dual purpose application ring.

It'll run at a at 35000 in gap.

I can throw that 500 shot on it, sealed up tight as a drum.

It's that perfect solution to that dual purpose application

because that guy that's going to throw a 500 shot on it,

but only does it two times a year.

Doesn't matter.

The whole engine's got to be built for that 500 shot.

Even if it's only two times a year, I got to gap the rings for it.

I have the right piston for it.

I have the right rods for it because that it only takes one time to blow it all up.

So the gapless is the perfect solution to that.

It doesn't care. Put it in, put it in big, let it hunt.

It'll be just fine.

I'm loving your examples, but you're exactly right.

You got to build the engine for the highest stress levels you expect to place on it.

So do you have any other examples of common things that are misunderstood

or overlooked when selecting or installing piston rings?

Something we run into are a couple of things that we just touched on

to make sure the rings fit the grooves correctly.

They're not, you know, butting. We're not bottoming.

We we how do I say this?

The part you don't check is the part that's going to cause you a problem.

That could be a nickel, you know, and the whole engine goes to heck in a hand basket.

We need to make sure we're looking at everything.

At the same time, you need to look at it all coming apart.

It should take you as long to take that thing apart as it did to put it together,

if not longer, because it's telling you a story to look at all the pieces.

So making sure everything fits correctly, test fitting everything,

you know, rolling the engine over, making sure nothing's going wrong there.

Those are very, very important.

But again, back to the system.

Make sure we're working with a guy that's honing correctly.

Make sure we've got the right oil pump volume,

something that everybody needs to think about.

The straight, we talked about turbos and superchargers, forced induction.

Well, today, everything needs a stroker kit.

You know, 400 inches, that ain't enough.

It needs to be 480.

We need to stroke it.

So things that we've got to remember when we stroke the engine,

it's not only increasing the cubic inch above the rings,

it's increasing the cubic inch below the rings.

We have to make sure we compensate that in the bottom end.

So my five quart oil pan for a 350-inch engine isn't enough for a 450-inch engine.

I need to give the bottom end more compartment volume.

And what I mean by that is don't fill it full of oil.

We don't put 10 quarts of oil in a 10-quart pan.

We need more airspace.

I have to give it more room to breathe above and below the piston ring.

So that's a common thing with the strokers that people don't necessarily know,

is that we have to increase compartment volume as the cubic inch of the engine goes up.

The other thing we have to look at is the geometry of everything.

I talked to a gentleman the other day about LSs.

Okay, well, a stock GM LS block will support a four-inch stroke.

It's not a problem.

But once we start going beyond that into the four-100, four-and-eighth,

we're pulling the piston so far out of the bore.

We're hanging so much of the skirt out.

We're changing what's called the gauge point on the piston.

We're moving it.

And if all of this stays in the cylinder, I've got a nice little

monorocket at the bottom dead center, a top dead center, keeps the rings nice and happy.

But if I start pulling that way out of the cylinder, guess what?

My rock over goes crazy and rings can't fix a rock problem.

They simply can't.

We're picking the rings up off the cylinder wall.

Now we've got an oil control problem.

We've got a blow-by problem.

So the biggest mistakes are into is people not looking at, again, what I'll call

the system, the whole package.

You know, if we're going to put a four-and-eighth inch stroke in that engine,

well, I've got to have a cylinder long enough to keep that piston inside the cylinder.

So that's a thing to think about.

Other things that we run into a lot is just, okay, so I built the engine.

Everything's happy.

I know it's all good.

Did my thing.

Now what do I do?

Oh, I got to break it in.

I got to put it in something.

We've got to make sure that we're breaking them incorrectly.

We want to get the engine fired up.

We want to get a load on the engine as soon as possible.

We don't want it sitting there idling up again.

I got a million stories.

One of the other guys, we were just talking to a guy, Bill the diesel.

This guy somewhere heard that fire that engine up, let it idle all night, was how you break it in.

Think about it.

This thing sat and ran for eight to 10 hours with no load.

Load is what creates pressure.

Pressure helps burn the fuel.

This thing ran that long, no load.

Glazed the cylinders to death.

The only thing, there's nothing wrong with the rings.

Rings are fine.

Killed the cylinders.

You're going to take it apart and hone it again.

How much does that cost?

So proper breaking is probably one of the biggest things that we battle is we want to get the engine out.

We want to get a load on it as quickly as possible.

Use a proper break in oil.

Don't put your own additives.

I'm not a chemistry major.

I'm not putting anything in the oil that the oil manufacturers didn't put in originally.

I'm not a chemist.

So just pick your brand, find a break in oil that you like, get it out there, go run it and you'll be happy.

Happy indeed.

Now, I'm sure we're raising a lot of eyebrows for folks who maybe didn't have a full picture of the science behind piston rings.

Maybe a lot of new engine builders or aspiring engine builders.

What advice do you have for folks that want to learn more, that want to have a better understanding of what's at play here?

What resources?

What opportunities are out there?

Well, the thing there is one, you can always contact us.

Our toll freeze, 800-874-2753 for domestic lines.

Our website, TotalSeal.com, all kinds of contact information out there.

Reach out to us.

But one of the best things is I'll call it that mentorship.

I'm very fortunate that I grew up in that kind of a household.

I was that kid that had one question all the time.

Why?

Ask questions.

Find a friend.

Find a guy.

Find somebody that's been doing this for a long time.

Find that old dude that knows a million things.

And ask him, why?

That mentorship, if you're kind of getting serious, you kind of want to get into this, find a local machine shop, especially for your young guy.

You know, don't have a lot of obligations, world.

Go offer to sweep his floor.

Go offer to clean parts.

I did, I did that here in Phoenix.

I would go, I won't get into the guy's name, but I go help after school.

You know, like, okay, what's that?

Well, that's a sturdy valve grinder.

Can you show me how to run that?

Well, okay, but go clean those blocks first.

Okay.

You know, I might get 15 minutes hands on a day, but that, you know, hey, that was 15 more I had before.

So, you know, find a guy, find a friend, make a friend, help these guys at shop, ask questions.

We're here, we'll help you.

YouTube's a great resource, a lot of good information out there.

There's some bad as well, but there's some good information out there.

But we'll just say find a friend.

And I'm glad you brought up, like, all the free educational opportunities there are out there, specifically on the internet.

And then I'll mention your YouTube channel, the Total Seal YouTube channel is fantastic.

If you haven't seen it, it is worth checking out.

Thank you.

We work hard on it.

I'll say this, that, and we do a podcast called Hidden Horsepower, you know, my good friend Joe Costello is the host of that.

We do a lot of that.

I will say this, and I apologize to all your viewers and listeners out there that we've been a little lax the last couple of years.

It's been insanely busy.

We had the busiest year we've ever had last year and trying to get, we'll say everybody aligned at the same time, you know, myself, Joe, the person on the other.

Just like this, getting everybody aligned at the same time in this crazy busy world that we have today can be a little difficult.

We've got a lot of subjects we want to touch and a lot of people we want to interview.

But it's exceedingly more difficult to get all those people aligned at the same time.

And so my apologies for not cranking them out like we used to, but we're going to we're going to keep moving forward.

Hey, no one's going to fault anybody for being busy.

It's a good dilemma to have.

Now, we've been talking for over 30 minutes now.

Is there a point we haven't made yet as a topic we haven't discussed?

If you had a bullhorn and you were standing on top of a building in front of a bunch of prospective engine builders, what do you want to tell them about piston rings?

Again, we kind of we have kind of touched on the biggest thing is I come back to ask questions.

Don't just take the parts that come in the box.

Make sure it's the right part for what you're doing.

Do your research, ask questions.

Because I again, I experienced so many customers that have.

I want to necessarily use the word failures, but they're not satisfied.

It's not, you know, well, you know, it's OK.

It's a little wet.

It's got a little blow by.

It's, you know, they just didn't get the right parts for what they were ultimately doing.

So bottom line, ask questions and we're here to help you.

There's, you know, myself and quite a few other people here that would gladly answer any tech questions we can for you.

But that's the big thing.

Ask questions.

And if someone did want to contact you, you'd recommend the website and tech phone line.

Yeah.

TotalSeal.com and the numbers 800-874-2753.

And I'll say it's probably just, hey, you know, we talked a lot, but there's a lot of things on this.

You know, this doesn't have to be the only one of these.

We can keep going.

Send your questions in.

Glad to do whatever we can.

That, you know, we'll say keep this train rolling.

This has been a pretty eye opening conversation.

So thank you for sharing your time with us.

Have we hit all the topics?

I don't want to overlook anything.

One thing I will, I will hit is gas porting.

You know, that's a subject we didn't hit.

Gas porting is a neat thing.

It's been around for ages and ages and ages.

And that helps get combustion pressure back behind the ring and blow that out and seal that cylinder.

And in today's world of all the power adders, all the turbos, blowers, nitrous, all of this, having that gas pressure behind the ring is super critical.

The ring can only do so much based on its own pressure.

All that cylinder pressure is trying to push that ring away from the wall.

I've got to get gas pressure behind it and equalize that and push it out.

So in the piston world, in the high end racing world, we gas port.

Either this is a lateral or you can get a vertical gas port and they work well.

Some of the issues with gas porting, though, when we get into more of the street world is these are a fixed location.

It's always loading in that same spot.

So it can wear the bores a little quickly.

We came up with our gas ported rings.

This has got the slots built into the ring, not into the piston.

It the rings are always rotating so we don't get that constant loading point in the bores.

We don't get that excessive wear.

We don't get into reversion around the intake stroke because they're in the right place all the time.

We don't get that additional blow by from not having it.

But the really beautiful thing, because we talked about pistons a little bit earlier.

And a lot of these, what I'll call kits that we buy, the rotating kits,

come with a piston, come with a ring, come with bearings, gaskets, et cetera, et cetera.

But none of them that I've seen ever come with a gas ported piston and you're building your LS,

you're building your mod, you're building your coyote, and you're going to put a turbo on it.

And, you know, in my day when you said six pounds of boost, oh man, six pounds of boost.

You know, today it's like, oh, it's low boost.

Well, what do you consider low? Oh, it's only 30.

I'm like, 30? That's low.

You know, the same with nitrous.

I got it the other day and just got it.

I could talk with, you know, you go, oh, yeah, it's a nitrous one.

Oh, well, you got, you know, multiple kits.

Oh, it's only got seven, seven kits.

You know, it's like, you know, it's not that much.

But gas porting is super important when we get into high cylinder pressure engines.

So the beautiful thing is you can add our gas ported ring to that not gas ported piston.

You can buy the kit, you can buy the package and then simply add the gas ported ring to that package.

It's an excellent, excellent upgrade.

It's not crazy expensive and it elevates your entire package significantly.

And I'll give our good friends at Summit a plug.

We've got an entire line of gas ported ring sets that we've done for them

that are available on their website.

You know, unless it's something really oddball,

just about every application you can think of is on their website in our gas ported ring line.

We appreciate that.

Yeah, just go to summitracing.com type in total seal into that search window

and you'll see all sorts of different piston rings,

including those gas ported ones Keith was referring to.

And I think that'll do it for this episode because I think between you and me,

we could talk for another three and a half hours.

But yeah, we got to go.

We've been talking with Keith Jones,

director of technical sales for total seal piston rings,

all about, well, piston rings.

Keith, thank you so much for sharing your time and your talent with us.

Well, you're very welcome.

You guys have a great day and thanks everybody for taking their time.

This has been the on all cylinders podcast powered by summit racing.

Check out new episodes coming soon at on all cylinders dot com on all cylinders dot com.

Thanks for listening.

See you next time.

0:00

36:27

running super cop

speed pros

reinvent that wheel

internet and gear heads having access to a lot more information

cold fusion

engine project that runs on water (hydrogen from water)

HRA test down in Gainesville

TRW piston

OE

500

About this episode

Original notes