what if your new rings are beyond the std limit?

[meet07]

My current engine has been honed and new rings fitted. The last time I checked the closed gap it was past the standard limit. Now I need to rebuild again. Is it ok for the rings to be out of limit a few thousands? I know I hear about people building engines loose to extract more power? What ever that means? When is it time to bore out to the next size or can u get oversized rings and file fit?

[themadscientist]

It's some voodoo s***. The only time I would run bigger than recommended gap would be on an endurance engine that would be living in the upper rev range, the idea being the motor is going to get hot and stay hot and the extra range to expand is a safety margin. Ring ends touching is a nasty scenario. You WILL be boring that block up if that happens and only if you are lucky.

The time to bore your block is when your cylinders are out of round or damaged, not because of your rings. You set you rings to your bore not your bore to your rings. I would get another set of rings and file them to spec, but it's your engine, do what you think is best.

[meet07]

U don't understand my question. What do u do if your new rings are above the std limit for closed gap? Cylinder has been honed and the top ring is out 3-4 thousanths and 2nd ring 1 thousandths.....

[RRRRB]

.003-.004 extra is ok its not gonna harm anything, you may get a bit more crankcase pressure but wont cause an issue.. You may try and bounce rings around from cylinder to cylinder to see if you can get them best matched up.. You always want the 2nd ring gap to be bigger than the top by .001-.002