Replace pistons or just rings?

[MichaelSuch]

My 1g has been smoking a little on start up since I got it (only been 6 months) and I'm trying to fix it. So I took a different head off to the shop today for new valve seals, and getting the valves ground (original head still in the car so I can drive it since it's the only thing I got that makes good gas mileage). He said since I'm already replacing the head I might as well do the rings since it really wouldn't take that much longer and wouldn't have to really get inside the engine for a good while. I figured that I wouldn't mind getting pistons with a tad high compression ratio to give it a little more umph while off boost. But I don't want to pay $500 for 4 pistons and rings since this is no race engine, it's just a DD car that gets me back and forth to school (about 100 miles a day...).

So my current options are: Buy replacement rings (oem rings are $140 on extremepsi which is a bit high I think), buy some replacement pistons (probably around $200 that include rings) or try and find a set of decent pistons and rings for around $300. I'm not going to pay much more than $300 for pistons and rings since I just spent $100+ on the head gasket set, $80 for the arp headstuds, $30 for the valve seals, $125 for another head and $150+ for all the machine work. Not to mention I still need to buy rod bears and main bearings.

 

[Boost92awd]

Like you said its not going to be a race car, so why put forged pistons in it. As far as rings go, it definitly wouldnt be a bad idea to replace them.

Also I just had MAPerformance (vendor on this site) give me a price on some stock bore piston rings. $82.99 which is a hell of a lot cheaper than extremePSI.

 

[MichaelSuch]

Very true, sounds like those Mitsubishi Rings should be fine then. So here's what I got so far:

Head taken to machine shop for ground valves, cleaned, and resurfaced
Ferrea Valve Seals being put in by machine shop
ARP Headstuds
Headgasket Kit
Spark Plugs
2g Exhaust Manifold (Mine has a nice 4" crack through the center of it)

What I've got left to order:

Rings
Freeze Plugs
ACL "Race" Rod and Main Bearings (I hear that tri-metal is much better, and is only about $30 more on MAPerformance...)
T-Belt
Accessory Belts (AC, Powersteering, Altenator, etc...)
Oil Pan Gasket

And I think that is it, is there anything else I should replace? Maybe the rear main seal? Would that be easy to do with the motor still in the car?

 

[redyute1]

You gotta pull the tranny to do the rear main seal

 

[bastarddsm]

I used npr rings off ebay.. they seem to hold up well in my shitbox. 25psi on a 9.5:1 motor on E85.

 

[MichaelSuch]

Well I won't do that one until I rebuild the transmission then...

 

[KelTsi90]

I'm using the NPR 8.5:1 pistons and rings. It gave me 180 of compression across. They cost me $150 with rings.