Piston rings yet again...

So I put the new rings in, got the cylinders on, head on, torqued all the bolts properly and I go to check the amount of engine oil I need to put in and while looking through the back of the book for the specs I see something I never noticed before, there's a drawing of #2 ring and it shows a bevel and the narrow side is up.

Damned if I saw that or read about #2 needing to be oriented in one way or the other, Yamaha while giving exhausting step by step info in the manual showing measurements to tell if you need new rings says NOTHING about ring orientation up or down in that section, just shows the proper positioning for the gaps.

I have no idea if I have those 2nd rings in any order much less right. They were Yama NOS rings so I guess they have a bevel.

Of course I read this 20 minutes after torquing the head gasket.

Lovely. Now to buy another head gasket and take the top down again just to do it all over again.

Damn...

It's not fun at this point. No, not at all...

 

I would try to reuse the head gasket. If the bike hasn't been run yet, it may be salvagable.

 

I agree... the head gasket should be fine to reuse as long as it goes on the same way it came off.

 

I agree also, you can reuse the head gasket since the engine has not been run and heated up.
Lesson learned.... read first...

 

I did read. I did everything in the assembly section. what I found was a little pictograph in chapter 7 with no mention what so ever earlier in the manual in the assembly section talking about the orientation of the rings.

They talked extensively about the most minute details how to tell if the rings, piston or cylinder is out of spec and they show a drawing exactly how to orient the rings in an axial direction but in the lateral direction, the %$^&* didn't hint at anything whatsoever as to up or down.

I never read in all my searches anything mentioned here or elsewhere about this important detail as to #2 ring needing to be oriented properly but I have spent oh so many hours searching caveats as to what I need to do to put this together without errors. I'm out of work right now so I have to watch every penny and I've tried to make no mistakes that would cost me time, effort and especially money.

As it is, I used the Permatex copper sealant and because it was so sticky it pulled head gasket apart when I undid my work. The base gasket tore in two places... I was so anal putting everything together by the book.

I'm walking away from it for awhile...

 

There's nothing worse than doing something twice.

 

You probably don't want to hear this now, but...

Traditionally, any numbering or markings on the rings is on top so as long as they were installed with their number or other markings facing up, they're right and you don't have to be quite so vigilant of the bevel. I always assumed it's why they do it that way (put the numbers on "top.")

 

That's the thing Fitz, I have no idea which direction those rings are in. The only thing I read regarding installation that I found in hours of reading forum searches , getting advice and gleaning over the reassembly part of the XJ1100 service manual was the orientation of the ring gaps. Had I not been looking for the oil volume to fill now that I had the engine back together in the back of the manual under "maintenance specifications" I would never have by chance seen the drawing of #2 ring with the bevel facing up and even there they don't mention the need, they just show the drawing.

It may be tradition to put the markings on the rings up but I never heard of that nor did I look for markings on the rings, I just checked the end gaps and installed them the way they showed how to do so. How maddening that they neglected to include that mandatory assembly detail in an unrelated part of the book.

the manual was not well written, they copied the engine rebuild from the original XS1100 manual. They mentioned and demonstrated the installation of the "cam chain cavity cylinder seal" but it was eliminated from assembly a couple of years before the XJ1100 was made and should not be in this manual.

Hopefully someone else doing this later on will find this thread and be aware.

 

Unfortunately, a LOT of manuals assume a certain prerequisite skill level on the part of the mechanic. This is one little detail that's part of "Auto Shop 101" so it often gets overlooked; as does the need to "clock" the ring gaps so they're not aligned, as you discovered.

I would have hoped it would have just been "human nature" that would have had you put the numbers on top without even thinking about it.

Now that it's back apart, how many were upside down?

 

KA1J de WA2FDU ?? LOL - Syracuse, NY

 

I forget how to predict the odds but I think it's around 7% that all #2 rings would be properly oriented if installed in a random fashion. As it turns out the only rings with marking on them were the larger two rings; #1 & #2.

Three of #2 were in upside down and two of the #1 were upside down.

I'm going to have to put the cylinders in by myself, the people I know who could help on a weekend are all out on this sunny day. Hopefully I can do so without further issues.

I'm going to use that anaerobic gasket sealant for the base gasket, the old gasket was ruined getting the cylinder back off.

What a PITA having to re-do this.

Ugh...

 

Honestly, I'd wait until I had help and a new base gasket. No sense rushing it now.

 

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