In another post, I was looking for a replacement ring for an older engine and was referred to 'Bowman's Rings'. He had my ring and another for an ST I'm re-building. Question is what, or how, does the quality/construction of the simple ring vary. The ST's ring price goes from $8.50 to $22.00. My $8 ring lasted Oh, about 6 minutes. I never thought about this simple thing before!

You may have installed your $8 ring incorrectly?

Tell us more about whose ring and what engine are we talking about. Was it your S61K?

Most two strokes have pinned rings.

If you insert the sleeve and twist it, you have just destroyed a ring in a two stroke.

Your ring got caught in a port for the above reason and jerked the top ring land off.

It most likely destroyed the cylinder sleeve also? Look at the front or rear Schnurle ports and see if the top or bottom edge has a burr on it?

I have since pulled the liner to check for that-again all though, I felt pretty confident there were not any burrs. Yes, it was the S 61 K. The ring could only go on one way, given the pin in the piston. And, I did use a piece of the old ring to clean the groove. Now, I finally found my 'lost for years' Higley book on engines who said: the piston ALWAYS goes in from the bottom! I put mine in from the top-seemed to slip right in. Seen, and worked on, larger engines where you get the ridge build up at the top-didn't seem to be the case here though. The ring I got was from Tower. BTW, sleeve looks O.K., the engine was just above idle when it seized. I ran the engine only in short bursts for only a minute or two each time-though the engine was, IMHO, way to hot, despite running it rich.

wsmalley, sorry about your piston. I'm sure you can find a new one. Have you communicated with Frank Bowman recently? I emailed him a few days ago and was wondering if he's checking his mail.

David

Frank C Bowman
1211 N Allen Ave
Farmington, NM 87401-3568
505-327-0696
[email protected]


Frank has a new Email address. Noted above.

But even so he may not check it for a few days.

The piston in the ST S61, S61K, & G61 are all the same as long as they are the ringed version.

Or if your talking the ABC version, all the ABC are the same also.

Thank you, w8ye! I had used the old one.

He emailed me back this morning with a list of his engine's rings/prices. Bill