How to Rebuild a Corvette 454 Engine - Part 5 - Page 2

As you've probably seen in several of the photos I numbered each cylinder and piston before starting the ring filing. This made figuring out which piston & ring set went with each cylinder pretty much fool proof. As I finished filing each ring I set it with its respective piston on my wok bench. Once the complete top set of rings were complete I then moved onto the bottom ring set. My top and bottom rings were different so I had to be careful not to get them confused. In my case the bottom rings came from the factory marked with a red stripe so keeping them separate wasn't too tough.

After all the filing was complete, and after all the end gaps were double checked, I used a piece of fine grit sandpaper to lightly deburr the end of each ring.

Next I moved onto the oil rings. Unlike the compression rings, each oil ring consists of three parts, the center expander/spacer and two scraper rails. The end gaps of the scraper rails were within spec from the factory so I was able to move right into installing the oil rings. Getting all three parts of the oil ring in their proper positions in the piston groove, as well as getting the ring end gaps in the proper location, took a little extra effort but went pretty smoothly overall.

After several hours of work here's the last one - piston number eight with all three rings installed.

Since this was my stopping point for the weekend I decided to store each piston in it's respective cylinder, I figure it's a pretty safe place for them. At least this way they can't be knocked off my work bench somehow. Plus, this way everything can be covered with a single drop cloth.

In the next installment, I hope to get the pistons mounted to the connecting rods and also get the crankshaft installed. There's more to come!