New rings after rebuilt head? oil leaking/burninig?

[c_k06]

Ok i just had my head completley redone and i am in the process of reassembling the engine bay back together.
My uncle and i have been working on it and re routing vacuum lines. He asked me if the pistons were recently re-ringed because they looked in good shape with no carbon build up that either of us could see. He said that if i have the head rebuilt then i will surely have to have new rings put in too. He said there will be a lot of smoke until i get new rings put in and i will loose a lot of oil. Is this true and if so what is the best thing i should do? thanks.

 

[dsm_Crazed]

Was the car smoking before? I wouldn't see a problem with just putting the head back on. I've done it on motors with 120k+ miles with no smoke. As long as everything looked good, and you didn't have issues before, you should have no issue putting it back together the way it is.

 

[BogusSVO]

I think your Uncle is old school, There is a belief that with a new/rebuilt head will increase compression and "blow out the rings" and cause you to burn more oil.

I do not believe this "wife's tail"
Yes compression will be rasied a minamal amout due to surfacing the head, unless the head was milled to raise compression, like .030 or .075 or even .125
I doubt your head was milled over .010
So if your compressin before the rebuilt head was 180, the after may be 185

Now with a head, it is right or it is wrong, you know with in 5 mins of start up.
when the head is bolted down, and the engine fired up, you will have a bit of lifter chatter, till oil pressure reaches the lifters, and they settle into place. If skipping or popping happens a valve is not set in the head right and not making the seal it should to the seat.(warped seats, imprpoer valve job, tip height wrong.. ect...)

Now as far as the rings go, did the engine smoke before the head was rebuilt? If it wasnt, why should it now? Unless the head was off(or even still on) and water got into the cylinders and rusted the bore, thereby ruining the sealing surface for the rings.

If you are worried about ring seal, there is a simple check you can do.

rotate the engine over, with the head still off, so all pistons are at mid stroke, then pour about an inch of oil on top of the pistons, all about equall, and watch the level of oil over a few hours time, some will flow past the the ring gaps, so if you put 1 inch of oil to start, and 3 or so hours later come back, and there is 7/8 of an inch on all 4, thats good, BUT if you come back 1 hour later and 3 pistons still have an inch, and the fourth has 1/4 of an inch, you have a problem with the rings in that bore.

But as far as a rebuilt head, causing the rings to fail, I just do not see the theory as sound.
I have put heads on engines that had over 200k miles on them, then drove the car another 10k or so miles before I blew the rings out. (turned up the boost is what took the rings out, going from 14 psi to 22psi)

I hope this helps!!
Happy wrenching!!

 

[c_k06]

well the valves just got re cut and seated. i also already have the head bolted on and everything. i am putting all the pulleys on and everything so i will hopefully be done with it within the next week or so.