Captn,

Just for you I think I've found an excellent reason to use those Bowman rings. It may also relate to why I've not seen the same benefits you have.

I just tore down a 14 hour DLE 111 of mine. Overall I was quite pleased with what I saw. One of the best flame fronts I've encountered in a long time. However, as I've experienced with a couple of other Chinese engines, the rings had not completed the seating process after 14 hours. This is where the Bowman products could be a true performance benefit by seating much sooner than the ultra hard Chinese rings. The DLE 30 would prolly get some good performance out of them, along with all the other Chinese products if people switched out the rings right after purchase.

This may be why you've had such success with them. Typically I use products from the major manufacturers, or use products custom made by other vendors for specific purposes. In this arena the Bowman rings have not been able to provide an improvement over what I had. If you've been working with mostly "far eastern" products, the Bowmans's would likely have shown a significant inprovement over the stock products.

Knowing this is not the right thread for it, but anyone wondering about the rest of the 111's condition, overall it's just fine. A small void in the chrome in one cylinder, but it came that way. Even the majors experience this periodically. Everything else is just peachy.