Posted by Matt Wilson [162.158.69.150] on Thursday, June 22, 2017 at 00:03:52 :
Have you guys ever used a tapered piston ring compressor? I read about them recently in a Ford flathead V8 rebuild and hot rod book. The author said they are much better than the usual ratchet type of adjustable compressor. He says the adjustable types are more prone to breaking the rings, but the tapered ones are not prone to that at all. This caught my attention because I found a broken ring when I disassembled my freshly rebuilt 230 many years ago, after one of its first voyages, and I'm not sure if it's because of the adjustable ring compressor I used, or because of the severe overheating it underwent on that drive, when one of the core plugs popped out of the engine (thanks to my machine shop), or if I just screwed up along the way.
Other discussions online said similar things. I'm thinking of ordering one for my rebuild. The pistons are 3.4675" (0.030" oversize for the 3-7/16" bore size), and I found an 88mm tapered compressor for about $30. That's 3.4646", which is only about 0.003" less than the size of my piston/cylinder. I would think that should be ok.
Do you guys have experience with these?
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