I have used chrome faced rings in most of my rebuilds, 4 strokes and 2 strokes. Even my most recent one on the 350. Never have I had any issues breaking in the rings.
I don't care if it runs on horse ****, the fuel has nothing to do with the break in of the rings.
It's surface prep of the cylinder and method of break in that makes the difference. Use too fine of a hone and you're not going to get chrome rings broken in. Each different facing material on the rings requires a different surface prep.

If the oil has an additive that is too slippery I can see that preventing break in of the rings. It might prevent the wearing in of the peaks on the cylinder wall to the ring face.
I knew of a guy that decided to use STP motor honey to lube his cylinder walls before piston install. The thing burned oil until he sold it. Rings never broke in. I don't know what method he used in an attempt to break it in but obviously the rings never seated.
Using some kind of grit to break in your rings sounds sketchy to me. You cannot control where that grit goes after you apply it to the cylinder walls. It may hone out your valve guides and other bearing surfaces as well. You don't know where all it gets to. If it's a sacrificial engine or nearly worn out and trying to stretch it's life, maybe, otherwise I'd not be adding grit to an engine.

 

I just bought a case of Bon Ami for my next build LMAO

 

Honing the block does two things:

1. It brings the bores to the desired size

2. The rough surface wears the rings so they'll seal better

When the bores get polished before the rings fully seat it'll allow oil past the rings. By introducing a lapping compound the highest spots on the rings will get worn off and they'll seal better. I've lapped rings many times over the years and it always stopped the oil consumption problem. Of the powdered cleansers AJAX is the most aggressive as it is made from powdered quartz.

 

I doubt that you were using a chrome faced ring, most likely a ductile iron or steel ring with a moly face. Chrome face and chrome impregnated rings are used in heavy equipment diesel applications and are really not used anymore for street / strip applications.

Someone might have said you have Chromoly faced rings which I believe is another misnomer. Most likely a steel ring with moly face is what you have.

If you don't agree post the ring pak manufacture and part number

 

This is what i installed from summit

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/slp-e-251kc

Oil Ring Tension: Standard

Gapless: No

Top Ring Material: Iron

Top Ring Facing Material: Chrome

Second Ring Material: Iron

Second Ring Facing Material: Cast iron

Oil Ring Material: Chrome plated carbon steel

 

I stand corrected. I do believe that these rings require a long time to break in and a different technique of dressing the cylinder walls

 

Final finish was a 240 grit ball hone. I can't say that it took any longer than any other engine I have re-built. However I have not used moly faced rings either.
Just ran it hard on dino oil. Seemed 90% broke in within 20 miles. Never uses any oil that I can tell. Compression tests showed very little rise after initial break in and 1500 miles later.

 

A this point, before throwing different kinds of oils and doing performing different kinds of driving "procedures", you need to do a diagnosis of mechanical condition of engine. AN accurate compression check followed by and accurate leak down check. A compression check will give you an "overall" condition of lower engine seal. Leak down check can help pinpoint compression leakage. Reason I suggest this is, you stated you're adding a quart of oil at every gas fill. To me this suggests the rings have not seated AND taken to the shape of cylinder and/or cylinders OR your builder screwed the pooch on ring clearances.

 

I would do a compression check to see where it is at. It really only tells you the condition of the top ring, but that should be representative of the wear-in on the other rings as well.
If the second ring was installed up side down this would cause high oil usage as well.

 

I fired it up this morning and ran it at 1500 rpm. Not a hint of blue smoke so the piston ring lapping did the trick. It had been using a quart every 250 to 300 miles so it'll certainly go a lot longer now. Its a good trick to know. I have always referred to it as "The Bon Ami Trick" but I just found AJAX works faster because its powdered quartz instead of calcium carbonate like Bon Ami and Comet use.

 

Sorry for disagreeing but i cant trust what Ajax lists for ingredients. The label displays it as a bleach but the w/s list has no chloride components. My suspicion is (and only a suspicion) is that any motor would have to many of the close tolerance parts throughout the engine affected and could be harmed by strong chemicals and abrasives. Brgs, vlv guides, timing set, seals are all vulnerable.

My guess is more problems could well be created than solved by using something like a powder cleaner and engine life could be greatly shortened. No i dont have proof but neither do i see any mfr recommending this. And i think some info like this could be very detrimental to those desperate and easily influenced.

I wouldnt want an engine failure to happen to anyone here looking for advice. So i have to post i dont recommend this powder cleaner additive at all. Just my 2 cents, take it or leave it.

 

 

Uh, I didn't put it into my crankcase; just a 1-1/2 ounces into each of the cylinders to seat the piston rings. For crankcases you use coarse sand.

 

You know how your oil turns black between oil changes?

Where do you think all that black stuff comes from?

The same place that the Ajax in your oil is going to come from.

 

His bearings are sparkling clean!

 

Yep...would love to see an oil analysis after that trick.

In the diesel world you see "dusted" engines when the air filtration fails and dirt gets drawn into the cylinders. Doesn't take long on a diesel to wipe one out...of course they run WOT as far as airflow...so a little more extreme....but that dust is nothing compared to directly pouring slurry into a cylinder. Just the fun of a "hydraulic" lock in a cylinder and a bent rod/cracked block would be enough for me.

If a cylinder is honed/prepared properly it will break in immediately. I've got "Hellfire" rings in my turbo 555" and those suckers are hard as heck...but sealed near instantly. Exhaust ports are bone dry.

The Mod motors are known to last a long time on rings just like the LS engines....curious as to why it had to rebuilt at all? Incredibly high miles or something happen to it?

JIM

 

The other problem on modern engine rebuilds, is the surface finishes are so fine, and precise that it is getting harder to reproduce those in an after market machine shop. Piston manufacturers always supply piston to wall clearance, and ring Mfg. supply surface finish specs that need to be closely, and properly followed.
Deck, and head surfaces are also super fine with no visible marks after the factory machines them.
The biggest thing though in my opinion is that the cylinders are round, and have no taper or the rings will never seal.

 

That is true...in fact it seems most OEM's tell you not to try honing at all. Just use what's in there and move on.

JIM

 

Rings don't wear, cylinder walls do.
I run dino during the break-in cycle but not because it helps anything seal, I do it because it's a lot cheaper and I'll dump it right away.
Once it's close to operating temp, beat hell out of it. You'll never get a good ring seal until you get good pressure pushing the ring against the cylinder wall.
I think you guys dumping abrasives into your engines are nuts, I run a good air filter to keep crap like that out of mine.
Oh, and I'll NEVER build a fresh engine without a torque plate hone.

 

most rings don't seat because you need to do full throttle runs to get pressure behind the rings so they push against the cylinder walls. you need to load the rings with short full throttle runs.