felix488•12d agoMost Upvoted

Appreciation post: old timers who still gap piston rings by feel

I watched a kid fresh out of school spend 20 minutes with a feeler gauge on a set of Cummins rings last Tuesday, and the whole time I was thinking about the old guy who taught me to just look at the light passing through. You can't buy that kind of know-how in a tool catalog, and I swear half the new guys blow ring gaps because they trust a manual over their own two eyes. Anyone else see this shift away from hands-on judgment in the last 5 years?

2 comments

2 Comments

wadeyoung12d agoMost Upvoted

That feeler gauge stuff drives me nuts. Light gap method has never let me down on a big bore motor. Watch the light under the ring and you know instantly if its square. Had a kid last month file a set of 3500 series rings paper thin because the book said .030 and he didn't look at the crosshatch. Sent one down the bore two hours later. Some things you just have to feel.

avery36611d ago

Respectfully @wadeyoung, I've had the opposite luck with the light gap method on smaller bores where the lighting is inconsistent, so I still lean on feeler gauges for a repeatable baseline. If the crosshatch is fresh and the ring's properly set, the gauge tells me everything I need without guessing.