Piston rings

[Mr. Mayor]

I'm rebuilding a c-113 engine. The pistons I received with the kit are 3 ring, the originals were four ring and my IH and IT manuals both
reference four rings. Any ideas on why this would be?

 

[rustred]

its jobber stuff, dont mean u will get same as original.

 

[Janicholson]

Two choices, Run with the 3 new rings (the oil ring is likely a newer 3 piece which is vastly better, or get another 4 rings that fit. Always check end gap as installed, seizure will result if there is a small gap. Jim

 

[wore out]

(quoted from post at 18:47:42 10/05/20) I'm rebuilding a c-113 engine. The pistons I received with the kit are 3 ring, the originals were four ring and my IH and IT manuals both reference four rings. Any ideas on why this would be?

Four ring pistons are archaic and have been replaced by three ring pistons for a half-century or more.

Trouble is, as time moves forward and things change the old "print" manuals from "back in the day" don't get magically updated.

 

[gene bender]

because thats the way we go now old 4 ring are gone

 

[the tractor vet]

Three ring pistons have been out since like 58 in tractor and industrial app. Ya have less piston drag and better oil control with the new style oil rings. Always read and understand the instruction on the ring packages , use extreme care when installing rings , always do a test fit of the rings to the bore and check end gap. , always fit the piston to the hole as they are NOT all the same size , make sure your skirt to wall clearance is correct . A good engine build you check everything with mic.'s and bore gauges . Just becqause it is fresh out of the box does NOT mean that everything is exactly the same . Once you have the sleeves installed your wise to check for wrinkling of the sleeve and correct any imperfection along with fitting the piston to that hole , in other words ya can't make the piston any smaller if it is on the vary high end of spec.'s and if the sleeve bore is on the small side your skirt to wall will be off so if you have wrinkling and a big piston in a small wrinkled hole ya got a problem and ya have to hone with a ridgid hone to open them up . Now ya want to go OCD then ya get down to the nitty gritty and weigh each piston and ya make the fat ones weigh what the skinny ones weight . Then it is on to the connecting rods . But ya only do all this if your OCD and ya want to squeak out that extra pony hiding inside .

 

[Mr. Mayor]

Not my first, but thanks! My last c-113 kit, about eight years ago, came with four ring pistons. Refresh my memory...... piston notch to the front...?

 

[used red MN]

Generally yes, notch to front. Did you read all the literature that came with the pistons? If the set is worth a darn I would think it would cover this.

 

[Mr. Mayor]

My thoughts too but there was nothing with the kit as to the notch position.