Pinto Piston Ring Availability Surprise

[Rick Kirchner]

Last re-build (before the long rod kit was approved) back in 2016, I had Butler put a new set of the Ivey CP pistons in my pinto.

Starting a re-build for that motor and got a bad surprise - evidently the rings for the CPs and the older J&Es are no longer produced. Spoke on the phone at length with Cameron Ivey and both Speed Pro and Hastings have discontinued those sizes and Ivey was unable to obtain any.

I searched for hours, even tried European suppliers, no joy.

The problem is evidently that the rest of the world has moved on to thinner ring packs - and this is verified by the Wiescos that come with the long rod kit.

Then I got lucky - evidently Butler shelved the Ivey rings that came with the pistons and used Hastings, so I have a full set of speed-pro rings, and there was another set of tops in my spares, so along with the four 2nds I just bought from Pegasus I now have two sets if I just re-use the hastings oil rings that are currently installed, giving this motor two re-build cycles before having to buy new pistons.

[jrh3]

Total seal in Phx can probably make what you need

[Lee Johnson]

Rick --

You might check with Grant Piston Rings. They have sizes not shown in their on-line info. Earlier this year, I was able to get rings from them to fit original-spec Mahle pistons in a Pinto motor.

Thom Nguyen was very helpful in my search (I recall that they cross-matched between normal sets to match my needed ring types, thicknesses & groove depths). Thom's phone contact info is:

Thom Nguyen
(714) 996-0050 (x. 227, if my oldish note is correct)

Lee

[Rick Kirchner]

Hey Thanks!

I'm pretty good to go until I croak though, with a long rod engine starting to be built, and two re-builds worth of parts for the other motor.

But folks are going to need a source - hopefully they will find that answer here.

[John Green]

I ran into a similar issue and was connected with a guy in Canada who researched existing production rings for other applications. This is what he came up with :
Total Seal, Perfect Seal & Engine Tech
Need to use just the Top, second & oil ring from each. I cant remember which one from which manufacturer.

[Rick Kirchner]

. Total Seal, Perfect Seal & Engine Tech. Need to use just the Top, second & oil ring from each. I cant remember which one from which manufacturer.

Years ago I put a set of J&E pinto rings into my J&E SCCA pistons - and the oil rings beat themselves to death in a few hours. Luckily, didn't hurt the pistons at all! 3/16 rings in a 4mm groove....If you've run into this before you might notice it.... Novice engine re-builder - nope.

So I called J&E to figure out what went wrong and got the guy that actually designed the SCCA piston, and was met with a wall of profanity directed at the club. You see - J&E made a piston for the ring pack I bought, but the SCCA insisted on 4mm oil rings, so you have to buy two sets of rings to make one.

That decision carried over to the Ivey pistons that replaced the J&Es, and has led to the lack of parts we are running into today.

Wouldn't you just love to see a set of notes from the meeting and who insisted on this BS?

[Rick Iverson]

Wouldn't you just love to see a set of notes from the meeting and who insisted on this BS?

Ok, that made me laugh.