DIY piston rings

[fredintoon]

Seems that stock rings are unfindable.
This was posted to the XS650 site:-

http://users.tpg.com.au/agnet/make%2...n%20rings.html

All you need is to scrounge up a piece of old cast iron sewer line like good ol' Burt Munro and find a "bro with lathe".

[crazy steve]

Interesting... although the caveat at the end is a bit off-putting...

'This is a rough and ready fix, and not recommended for quality engines. Use this method entirely at your own risk and discretion.'

Of course, this doesn't address the oil control rings either, so I expect you'd have a bit of an oil-burner...

[fredintoon]

Interesting... although the caveat at the end is a bit off-putting...

'This is a rough and ready fix, and not recommended for quality engines. Use this method entirely at your own risk and discretion.'

Of course, this doesn't address the oil control rings either, so I expect you'd have a bit of an oil-burner...

Hi Steve,
yeah, that caveat is for the US audience, same as the "Warning, contents may be hot" labels on McDonalds coffee cups.
WTF, compared to no rings at all they'd be OK, right?
The old-fashioned one-piece groove-full-of-holes oil rings would be doable; drill all those little holes one at a time before you split the ring into a C-shape.
The drilling would go a lot quicker if your "Bro with lathe " also had a mill.

[cywelchjr]

Hi Steve,
yeah, that caveat is for the US audience, same as the "Warning, contents may be hot" labels on McDonalds coffee cups.
WTF, compared to no rings at all they'd be OK, right?
The old-fashioned one-piece groove-full-of-holes oil rings would be doable; drill all those little holes one at a time before you split the ring into a C-shape.
The drilling would go a lot quicker if your "Bro with lathe " also had a mill.

The thing is that while the stock rings from Yamaha are NLA from what I hear, there are still aftermarket 1st over and they seem to file down just fine, and I've seen several sets of standard size aftermarket rings out there lately, just not cheap. Plus a source has been found for another aftermarket ring set, the only issue was one of them needed the oil ring I think groove a little deeper which with the lathe could be done also, and IIRC those were gapless rings which give slightly more compression as well, so there ARE still options if we really need them, we are not quite hosed yet, unless we are cheap old ba$tards like you.

[crazy steve]

...so there ARE still options if we really need them, we are not quite hosed yet, unless we are cheap old ba$tards like you.

Yeah, what he said...

[KA1J]

"we are not quite hosed yet, unless we are cheap old ba$tards like you."

Oh the LOVE, the love...

And don't forget the indiscernible bevel on the 2nd ring that has to face upward, the one I didn't know about and had to tear down my engine to check & discover 3 of them were upside down.

[cywelchjr]

Oh the LOVE, the love...

And don't forget the indiscernible bevel on the 2nd ring that has to face upward, the one I didn't know about and had to tear down my engine to check & discover 3 of them were upside down.

It is the love, it's the ribbing of the guys standing around in the garage watching the guy trying to get his carb bank back in and pointing and laughing.