I'd put new cam seals in too while they're easy to get to. I have some rings in my trunk right now for standard bore nrg i think. I was going to use them on my build but went balls out on my build instead. original plan was what youre doing. I should havea stuck to it. lol.

Interested in selling them?

First the link you posted is for gaskets, bearings and rings no pistons.

They come with the cheap steel top rings, easy to seal not real good on boosted builds tho.

Also steel rings will seal on about any crosshatch in a cylinder bore, because the rings are soft

A decent chrome-moly ring is a tad more touchy to cylinder crosshatch and hone grit used.


Also please inform me how you will bore a block over sized, or your mechanic friend will.

Or did you mean hone?

Lulz. Linked the wrong auction.

Much <3 Bogus, going some variant of chrome-moly rings then. Thank you very much for this info!

Trashing boring plans, just going with honing the stock bore and stock pistons. Mainly threw them out there at cheap pistons, but those are cast, and not hypereutectic from what I understand.

If you are going to tear into your engine, might as well make it bulletproof.


Doesn't make much sense, and could be more costly to trash NPR pistons and have to replace them, since with the cost and bore after trashing stock pistons in a fresh honed stock size block could be the price of nice forged pistons that can take more abuse.

Lol...in do this too...everytime I build a engine It starts out budget minded then I get in the "might as well do this while im at it" state of mind...next thing you know a simple re ring is a motor bully to the hilt...

that's why I see this forum split between 2 different kinds of builds:
"complete" build guys who spare no expenses and have baller engines
"semi-buit" guys who do rods and refresh everything else including rings, bearings, etc.

Any less than "semi-buit" and you're just lazy and cutting way too many corners and being foolish

Ideally you want a "complete" build.

If you track the car you NEED a complete build.

Gonna end up going semi-built.

Once I'm ready to seriously track it though, I'm going into the "complete, no expenses spared" category.

(Read: I'm going to build my current engine to get a feel for the process/experience with cheap shit, then find a good BP block and go crazy with the expensive shit when I know what I'm doing.)

Just wondering, what is the purpose of your car? Not sure what you mean by "seriously" track...whether that means tracking at all or something else.

Either way, I'm confused that you're willing to dump all this $$ now only to throw it away and re-do everything again, re-iterating AlexL's point back on 1st page.

If you're planning on inevitable failure or re-doing things, what's the difference to you in running ~200whp now and letting the stock motor take it's course and then rebuilding vs. getting that extra 50 whp and throwing all this $ that could go towards your build in the future?

I've done everything on this car twice, Rkim.

My first turbo setup (Which I'm running right now) is a ch..ch...churbo off eBay with a BEGi mani and a homemade downpipe/exhaust/etc.

My next turbo setup (which I'll be installing shortly) is a Precision 4828 with Artech goodness with some very specific stuff that I know I won't be replacing.

If I have never done something before, I do it with cheap shit to learn about it (<$500 in this case to do what I'm talking about with 18psi), then once I'm certain I have it right, dump big money into it. If I tear up cheap shit, I could care less. And yes I've broken a ton of cheap shit on this car at this point, and don't regret "wasting" that money - it was to learn how to do it.

If you are going that low budget with the turbo (you should probably be spending that much money on a proper tune if you are going to track the car) don't do a thing to the motor, run it at 220hp as previously suggested until you start to dial up the boost and wind up damaging a piston (that would hapen on an oem or forged piston anyways) and learn all you can with the motor you have.
on the mean time save your money for for an engine manegment, tune, cooling and build that you can flog for 3 hours on a track day and drive home when you are done.

I think people here are mistaking my intentions. The whole point of this exercise is to learn how to rebuild the engine and, more importantly, if I should even be rebuilding them in the first place.

If rebuilding an engine turns out Not For Me, I'll just pay for a pro to do it (TSE? Bogus? Local? There's lots of places to go for it). But the idea is to learn how to rebuild an engine with Cheap Shit(tm), not to get some godly bulletproof engine. FFS, I was seriously considering rebuilding with an eGay kit.

These are the rings I ended up using. And they were even pre gaped to what I wanted for standard size pistons. Just used ball hone to freshen up the bore.

SEALED POWER Part # E551X

(.018 Top/.022 Bottom out of box Spec)

I did exactly what you did except i just rebuilt my engine stock. I cracked a piston though. FYI i spend about 450$ on everything to rebuild the engine including machining the head true. Don't forget the engine break in fluid (zinc additive) 2 oil changes, 2 oil filters, new tranny fluid, about 5 cans of carb clean, box of rags, rubber gloves, couple tubes of RTV, red Locktite, assembly lube, engine stand if you don't have one. Id also get a shop manual also just to verify correct torques and sequences. Don't forget some emery cloth (2000 or 3000grit sand paper) to polish your crank a bit. Check your crank and make sure you don't have any gouges or else you might have to get your crank turned and then the bearings you buy now will be too small so you will have to get new bearings. One thing i didn't do that i wish i would of done was get a new oil pump.

One tip with regards to installing the bearings. MAKE SURE your fingers are effing clean before spreading the lube. If need be, put on new gloves each set of bearings. I learned the hard way and had to purchase new bearings because i smeared some shit in there. Also mark your mains in numerical order so you don't get them mixed up.

Last but not least have fun and listen to some music. Where in Washington are you located?

The shop I'll be using is located near Ellensburg. And thanks for the advice! I'll be definitely using it all!

Forgot a couple things. Pour the zinc additive in your oil filter. Prime the engine until you get oil pressure WITHOUT spark plugs installed. Continue this for maybe 30 seconds to a minute. No problem. If you really want to be ninja get some platigage and make sure your oil clearances are in spec. Ill pm you my number if you have any questions just hit me up.

Thank you, it is appreciated.

I think Bogus meant that the chrome moly rings are more sensitive to the hone and crosshatch being just right or they won't seat well. Re-read what he wrote.

Right, but they are better than the other ones posted