Stagger Rings

[Sean]

Ok, so I'm putting my bottom end together today, and I haven't looked in the Bentley yet, but figured I'd post on here real quick.

I'm suppose to stagger the piston rings a certain distance, the gaps that is. Whats this stagger distance suppose to be??

[der affe]

as a general rule 12 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 7 o'clock or there abouts for just about every engine. don't know for sure about bmw though. just make them equal distance from each other w/o lining them up with each other.

[dmoney(AB)]

usually about 120 degrees apart is a good rule of thumb,

[e30 gangsta]

Could you explain more of what exatly your doing? Seeing as im doing this in a few weeks.

[SA E30]

Yeah 120 deg staggered is right

[Sean]

Well...they're in. I didn't make them 120 degrees apart, because the bottom oil ring on the Deves rings had little gaps at every 90 deg interval. (like - it the way it was, there were four parts, and they were all offset.)

So, I just made the top to rings about 30-40 deg apart. That's about how the stock rings were.

Should be fine, I think?

[Sean]

Could you explain more of what exatly your doing? Seeing as im doing this in a few weeks.

When you put on the piston rings, you're suppose to stagger the gaps - so that they aren't in line when they're installed.

I was wondering what this distance was.