How does this work exactly? How effective is it?

 

Filing the piston rings to make the engine run cooler?

 

Yeah someone told me about it today. I was just wondering how it works.

 

It doesn't.

 

Now, its been a while since automotive class, so someone can correct me if I'm wrong on any of this.

If you file the piston rings, you will have too much blow by. This is when the exhaust gases go into the crankcase. All engines have some blowby, but too much is not good. I'm sorry that I don't remember the exact reason for that - I know a portion of it is you will have no compression. The fuel/air mix will escape into your crack case also, and maybe some oil will come up (not sure on that part)

Also, if I remember correctly the piston rings clean the excess oil off of the cylinder walls. They have nothing to do with cooling... Other then I guess your engine would be a lot cooler when it stops running!

Thats pretty much the basics as I remember, but as I said... Its been a while, so feel free to correct me.

 

It didn't make any sense to me, thats why I posted up. Thanks.

 

You file rings to fit the cylinder. You do each ring one at a time to its designated cylinder to the manufacturers specifications. This relates to cooling in only one way I can think of and that is compression makes heat. The higher compression you have the more heat you have. If your rings are filed too much or are worn and not sealing very good you get blow by which means you are losing compression and your motor cant make as much power as it should.