Touring piston oil ring "coiled wire"

[Biddlecombe]

My dad brought some home for me for my Morris 8 series E in 1965 he was an engineer at Wellworthy. I seem to remember honing in the bores.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I wonder if two types of rings are being discussed here?

Piston ring springs are used to seat the oil control ring perfectly into the cylinder wall.

Cord piston rings are used to help restore compression and reduce oil consumption in rebuilt engines.


I think the ones that have come with Jon's ring set are piston ring springs.

[Steve Jones]

I agree with Ruairidh other than Cord's Rings were used to restore compression and reduce oil consumption in worn engines. As I recall they worked for a while but were quite aggressive and only put off the evil day when you needed to do the job properly

Still available https://www.classicengineparts.co.uk/cat...-ring-sets

Steve

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I agree Steve, was trying to be be nice.

[JonE]

Thanks for all the discussion. Piston ring springs it is!
So if singly in a set of 4 (as per Seven piston), would one use it in the lowest oil ring position... or the upper position?

[Ruairidh Dunford]

You need to ask the supplier, to be certain, Jon.

[Bob Culver]

For other cars with two oil rings when a multi section sprung steel oil ring was suplied in overhaul kits it was advised to fit in the top position. Would not be recommended for a rebored engine with tight bearings. Some 1950s cars were intitially fitted with just one conventional oil ring and the second could be fitted in place later (sv minx).
As above I doubt if oil can be over controlled in a jet fed Seven. The rings appear to be benign cast iron.

Oil consumption in engines can be very elusive. All rings have influence.
At one stage my car used almost none, but that was with the wide rings.
Even with a rebore and two oil rings I could not get below about 1 pint per 400 miles of brisk main road running.Cord rings were diabolical devices advertised in the best journals. Do not operate on the normal comp ring principle. With oils of the time the steel rings wore bores rapidly. Not used for top comp ring. When my car was very tapered and top rings loose had a Cords document which advised fitting a Cord ring under the top comp ring. The car immediately used about a pint in 50 miles and got worsewhen the ring above broke.! 
At one stage Austin despaired and drilled behind the second comp ring rendering it just an oil ring. The RP parts book illustrates this. However the oil rings of the time were probably just stepped and not channel shaped.

[Colin Reed]

HI ALL,
What has to be appreciated is the Time these different makes of springs were being used.
Most of this work would have been carried out by a Local Garage Trying for there Customers to keep costs as low as posable and keep the car on the road.
Less of a Concern was how long it lasted they just need a bit of Breathing Space to decide what cause of action to take in the future.
There are still a lot of people out there still doing the Same on all ages of cars and vans ,
MONEY Can be tight at times.
If it keeps the Car on the road and safe to drive Thats OK with me

Colin
NZ

[David Stepney]

Thanks for all the discussion. Piston ring springs it is!
So if singly in a set of 4 (as per Seven piston), would one use it in the lowest oil ring position... or the upper position?

I have just been out to the garage to refresh my memory. The mutli-piece oil control ring should be fitted to the upper oil control groove.

   

The multi-piece ring in the picture is not quite the same as the one you have shown in your earlier photo, but I am sure you get the idea.

(And Hedd, if you see this post,  the image was taken with the Leica D-Lux. A bit better than the old DC20!)

[Ruairidh Dunford]

For my part Colin, I totally get that.

I just wondered if two different things were being discussed, possibly unintentionally.

Best wishes to you all.