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Total Seal Gapless rings?

I am working on my 6.5 build and stumbled onto this thread. I am considering gapless rings, but doesnt look like Leroy sells them anymore and couldnt find them on Total Seals website eaither. So you can have standard stock rings machined into gapless rings?
Yes. Go back and read this thread from the beginning, one of the members talks about the procedure to have a set of standard rings made into gapless by Total Seal.
 
I am working on my 6.5 build and stumbled onto this thread. I am considering gapless rings, but doesnt look like Leroy sells them anymore and couldnt find them on Total Seals website eaither. So you can have standard stock rings machined into gapless rings?
Yup, I sent mine in and they machined them. Pretty cheap too, I thought.
A definite must for every build for me now.
 
Yes you can simply mail off all 8 second groove rings to total seal and they will machine them for the rail that closes up the end gap.I plan to do the same with a 81 5.7 diesel I’m rebuilding.
Does the end gap need to be checked inside of the cylinder before sending them in ? I read this thread but it has been much to long ago to remember and, recently, the cataracts has kicked up and reading and pecking in a reply has become very difficult, so, I will not be going back through to try to read it all again.
 
DX block?
Indeed.👍I’m using Hastings moly rings this time around but after a bit of research I’ve found they have a well known reputation in the industry.I also have an early 1978 D block engine as well.Fully complete engine with pencil injectors and injection pump in place.No catastrophic issues other than blown head gaskets some 20 yrs ago but after using arp head bolts I’ve never had a head gasket issue since.
 
Does the end gap need to be checked inside of the cylinder before sending them in ? I read this thread but it has been much to long ago to remember and, recently, the cataracts has kicked up and reading and pecking in a reply has become very difficult, so, I will not be going back through to try to read it all again.

Twisted steel nailed it.End gap is checked afterwards when you square up the ring in the bore.
 
The biggest mistake was building it off of the Olds 350 2-bolt main. Second was not using head and main studs to begin with, instead of TTY bolts. Imagine the little beast it could have been if based off of a 4-bolt main, forged steel crank SBC with studs!
 
They had most of the bugs worked out by the time it was discontinued. Couldn't overcome the bad reputation.

No way GM was going to overcome the lack of head bolts on the 5.7 Diesel. Further the "new" single use TTY head bolts made repairs useless as no one esp. GM dealer mechanics had ever seen a disposable head bolt before. Manuals and training were not so good back then.

The 4.3L V6 Olds Diesel was a different story. Not sure the 1985 FWD version with aluminum heads would have had better service with the expansion rate difference taken out on the head gaskets. At least the V6 had enough head bolts. Sadly the FWD V6 GM donated to the college I went too had an occlusion in a piston from bad casting that would likely have shattered it eventually. I was the only one who touched it in the engine class since GM had donated it for educational use only. And due to odd lab class size I went it alone without a partner. (They scrapped the engine after that.)

Imagine the little beast it could have been if based off of a 4-bolt main, forged steel crank SBC with studs!

It is one of the most inefficient Diesels out there. If it ran long enough. Other Diesels were out there that could go the distance and deliver even better MPG. GM chose poorly because CHEAP (and no longer having car guys in leadership at the time). Compared to the gasoline engines suddenly strangled by emissions and Unleaded vapor lock prone Gasoline of the era, yeah, they delivered better MPG.

Dad took a oil sample on our 1980 Delta 88. After it broke the alternator bracket under warranty. The oil lab called it was so bad. After they figured out it was a Olds 5.7 Diesel "Oh, they are all like that." Dad didn't keep the smoking underpowered Olds after that. I still recall people coming out of the smoke cloud waving their hands in front of their faces behind us somewhere on a grade to go see Mount Rushmore.

Without addressing the common in the day gasohol used to remove water that ruined the governor flex ring, lack of good fuel filters, and water separators the engine would still be a non-running lawn ornament. Our dirty wet Diesel fuel is just that. Even now ULSD lacking lube for the CP4... Seriously GM had to do a recall to add a Water In Fuel Light. Wow GM owned Detroit Diesel and missed this. (From the 6.2 GM history: GM wouldn't have listened anyway.)

It was typical GM to come: experimental engines turned loose on their customers for R&D. You could have purchased another disaster Cadillac V8-6-4 ... or any Cadillac/Oldsmobile engine of the era that also had camshaft flat lobe trouble let alone the WTF mechanic blank stares from the constant changes on emissions systems during the model year including the coil in burned through distributor cap HEI "mystery".

Regardless the Olds 5.7 Diesel is deservedly the most hated engine in history for what it did to the North American Diesel market.
 
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