I'm rebuilding an L98, and I think that I may have installed my compression rings incorrectly. The Eagle rotating asm I have came with Hastings rings. It has two kinds of compression rings. A flat one and a reverse torsional one, with a dot on top and a beveled edge on the bottom inside OD. The paperwork was kind of sketchy. It didn't say which rings went where. It only said to install the rings with the dot up towards the top of the piston. I didn't know if that meant the dot faces up, or the dot faces up and goes in the top groove. So, I put the one with the dot in the top groove with the dot facing up. Low and behold, I was working on the motor tonight, and one of the f**king rings broke. I went on the Hastings website, and it showed that the beveled ring is the second ring and the flat ring is the top ring. Is this correct? Does it matter as long as all the cylinders are assembled the same?

 

Sounds similar to my je rings. Dot faces upward. Top ring has more tension then second. Second has beveled edge on bottom inside portion. Mine also had a small dot to label which side faces up. If you didnt install them the correct way and with gaps facing right directions, redo them

 

Something's not adding up tho. The ring gaps are correct with the way that I installed them. If I switch them, they'll be wrong. According to the engine spec sheet I have, the top ring should have a gap of .010-.020, and the second ring should have a gap of .010-.025. that is exactly what I have. If I switch the rings around, the top ring will be too big, and the bottom ring will be too small. I'm confused.

 

The dot on all rings will face up.

Rings normally come in sleeves. Each sleeve is marked as top, bottom, oil. There can be many different designs for rings so simply looking at them will not tell you what position they should be in. The top ring is the compression ring. Very little compression should reach the second ring so the top ring is made from different material. It usually has a more shiny metallic look to it from the chromium.

When sizing rings, the ring needs to be pushed down into the bore about an inch. An inverted piston that doesn't have a dome works well. The ring gap is then measured. How much gap depends on the application and bore size.

Since you're building an L98 (350), it will be a 4" bore. Standard street strip ring gap should be

Top ring = Bore x .0045"
2nd ring = Bore x .0050"

Assuming you have a 4.030" overbore, that would mean your top ring should have a 0.018" ring gap and the second ring should have a 0.020" ring gap.