Its not the ring that suffers, it's the piston. It gets too hot, expands and seizes in the cylinder. However, if the end ring gap is not sufficient, and the engine gets too hot, the ends of the ring will come together and break the ring because it cannot expand anymore. It would be hard to overheat a 2 cycle plane engine that is not over proped, and has sufficient oil in the gas. Just look at the pounding weedeaters take. Plane engines get lots more air. I've never seen any of mine even close to too hot. My revo is another story, i've seen at at 270 several times before I got the tuning correct. My planes are always under 200 when I check em, and thats super cool.