New piston rings with internal chamfer or bevel

[dirtyss]

Been a while since my last post.

While static balancing my '48 chief engines' flywheels, I noticed that all the new compression rings I got with the pistons have a bevel or chamfer on one of the inner corners of each ring. Is this to identify the 'top' of the ring for installation purposes or does it matter which way up they are installed ?

Rings came with new coated pistons set and no instructions (Thailand !) I cannot find any mention in original manuals about ring orientation.

Many thanks if you can help me with this.

[kitabel]

The bevel goes up. In general, any mark (dot, strike, circle) indicates the upper surface.
If it makes you more comfortable, arrange the rings 180° apart, but after 5 minutes the rings will go wherever they want.

[dirtyss]

Hi, thank you for that.

I thought it may be the case, I just wanted to be 100% sure.

[PRG]

Howdy sir,

I’m assuming that chamfer is on the entire inner perimeter as opposed to one corner, if you will. In which case that is modern ring technology (Mahle) utilizing gas expansion to seal the ring to the cylinder rather than brute force of the old style rings subject to drag and heat build. In the mid 90’s basically one cast piston blank was used for all three styles on a Chief, stock 74, Bonnie 74 and 80inch; machined to suit each application. Of all things, only the Bonnie 74 utilized these narrow gas expansion rings which I considered a must-have for my hot rod 80 incher that I was knocking the bevels out of the cases for a more efficient motor. I took those Bonnie’s, machined 140 though off the crown and turned a bit off the skirts in now notched cases. Way better than the old thick tension based rings, even without valve stem seals this one remains oil burning free by comparison.