CB450 piston ring installation

[boboznutz]

I am putting new rings in my cb450 and when I took the old ones off they were busted up really bad. The new ones are confusing me on how to install. There are 5 parts for each piston in the new kit. 2 bigger rings that have a TOP marked on them so they get put in right side up, and then 2 very thin rings and a ring that looks like it goes in between the thin ones.

Does anyone have any pictures of the pistons with the rings in place or can anyone tell me if the two top rings need to be in any particular order or are they interchangible as far as top and bottom?
Also does anyone know how the bottom ring gets set up? I believe this is called the oil ring and it looks like the two thin ones go above and below the funky shaped one, does this soung right?

 

[Sonreir]

Yup. You've got it. Also... make sure the gaps of the rings are set 120° from one another, like they're forming the tips of a triangle. None of the gaps should line up with the wrist pin. Make sure you don't get the two thicker rings mixed up. They're not the same. The middle ring will have a bevel on it.

 

[boboznutz]

So I am still confused, of the two larger rings niether seems to have a bevel.... one is darker than the other.... I took some pictures, witch is the top and witch is the middle?

Also for the oil ring, does the shaped one overlap itself? seems like it needs to but I dont know how much to overlap it, once its in the ring groove it would not be able to compress due to the ridges....?????? you can see the overlap in this picture.

This is how I have them on one piston. The gaps are not at 120 degrees yet.

 

[boboznutz]

Anybody?

 

[Sonreir]

Can you mic them? Is one thicker than the other?

Ans yes, oil ring does overlap and fit together.

 

[overdraft]

wait, what? i just did my 350 and i just butted the waffle ring ends... there's no way there's enough clearance in the piston groove for them to overlap at the ends... or am i misunderstanding?

 

[Sonreir]

The oil ring for my piston (admittedly, the piston and rings are aftermarket) overlapped by two or three teeth.

 

[lingo]

Bob, in the pic of the rings installed on the piston if you look closely at the top of the top ring you can see the bevel compared to the middle ring.

 

[Dr Evil]

I have used similar rings on air cooled applications and you are never supposed to overlap the squiggly one on those. Are you sure? I have had the oil ring accidentally overlap during installation and it caused horrible oil leaking and burning. Is there a reference for the overlap practice.?

 

[boboznutz]

so its been 2 months and I am still not sure how to handle the "squiggly" ring, does anyone know if it should overlap or not for sure... Im sure I am not the first guy to do rings on a cb450!

 

[wilber551]

the oil ring should not overlap. i was asking similar questions a few weeks ago and i was set strait by my dads friend who used to work in a bike shop in the 70's. the 2 thicker rings go on top. they should have "top" marked on them somewere so you know which way the rings face up, not what ring goes on top of the piston. the polished ring on top, and the darker, sharper ring second from the top as for the oil rings they should NOT overlap. go down to your hardware store and spend 7 dollars on a ring compressor {t-clamp}, degree all the rings out from one another and see if you can get them to compress. also, did you order the stock bore size? because that middle oil ring should not overlap..

 

[iContango]

So I am still confused, of the two larger rings niether seems to have a bevel.... one is darker than the other.... I took some pictures, witch is the top and witch is the middle?

Also for the oil ring, does the shaped one overlap itself? seems like it needs to but I dont know how much to overlap it, once its in the ring groove it would not be able to compress due to the ridges....?????? you can see the overlap in this picture.

This is how I have them on one piston. The gaps are not at 120 degrees yet.

Make sure to clean off all that carbon before reassembly...