does anyone bother to read instructions

grumpyvette

grumpyvette

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Staff member
I recently had a discussion with a friend that had just rebuilt his SBC engine and found it was burning an excessive amount of oil, at first he attributed the oil burn to the rings not seating correctly, but it never got even slightly better over the first 100 plus miles and he was keeping records and was burning several quarts of oil in that first hundred miles and was not even thru his first tank full of gas. a few questions resulted In me having a good hint at the problems source, and a compression test tends to confirm the likely problem. any time you start assembling an engine, if your not 100% sure what your doing and have done it successfully dozens of times previously, it pays to take a few seconds and read thru any instructions several times and if your not 100% sure what your doing, a call to the manufacturer and some on line (internet) research can save your days of work and hundreds of dollars in repairs compared to installing the component incorrectly.
He had selected some gap-less piston rings designed for installation in the second piston groove, but some how he had managed to install them upside down in the top, or first upper piston groove, so that the secondary sealing ring band was above the true piston ring.

OBVIOUSLY this is something that will require a complete dis-assembly and re-assembly to correct but with luck he can just install a new set of rings in the correct location and re-assemble the engine and get it corrected for the cost of new gaskets and rings

now IM sure hes not the first or last guy to screw up a ring installation,I know Ive made my share of dumb mistakes over the years, and I,ll admit Ive learned to do things correctly in many cases as the RESULT of a prior screw up! but reading the instructions SHOULD have prevented this screw-up



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http://www.totalseal.com/pdf/ts_rings_article.pdf
 
When I was young and knew everything I didn't, but I really HATE to do things twice so I learned to take the two minutes to read the instructions, unless of course its something I do all the time.
 
most of us learn several things the hard way, because all of us have a tendency to think we know more than we do when we are young, but as we age reality beats you into recognizing the truth, and eventually it begins to slowly sink into our minds that its smarter to read the instructions a few times, BEFORE starting any unfamiliar part install.
 
grumpyvette said:
most of us learn several things the hard way, because all of us have a tendency to think we know more than we do when we are young, but as we age reality beats you into recognizing the truth, and eventually it begins to slowly sink into our minds that its smarter to read the instructions a few times, BEFORE starting any unfamiliar part install.
Click to expand...

that is so true :lol:
 
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