Everything you need to know about Piston Rings

The Piston Ring

The Piston Ring is a vital part of your engine. Though it may seem small or even insignificant, without it or when it's damaged, your engine will simply not run, at all. Worse, a damaged piston ring can completely destroy an engine to the level of requiring replacement. 

A Piston Ring is a metal ring that wraps around the circumference of the piston, meeting the breadth of the cylinder itself. It creates a seal between the cylinder and the piston. Generally piston rings are made of cast iron or steel.

A Vital Part

The piston ring is an important part of the engine, it is responsible for the following functions:

• Seals the pressure of the cylinder and combustion chamber.
• Prevents oil from leaking out of the crank case and into the combustion chamber. 
• Seal the gap between the cylinder and piston. 
• Helps transmit heat between the piston and the cylinder wall. 
• Certain piston rings maintain the flow of oil between and around the cylinder wall and piston.
• Scavenges engine oil off the side of the cylinder wall and returing it to the oil pan.

Generally on modern automotive piston based engines, you'll find 3 rings per piston. The top two rings are known as the compression rings, they are responsible for closing the gap in the combustion chamber and sealing the gasses. The third ring is used for regulating the amount of oil that flows around the piston and the cylinder. It is known as the oil control ring. 

As already said, piston rings are a vital part of an engine. If they go bad, things can be disasterous. There are typically signs of piston ring failure that you can watch out for.

Here are 5 of the symptoms you should pay attention too:

Poor or No Acceleration

If for any reason you notice that no matter how hard you press on the accelerator pedal, your car doesn't accelerate, or if it takes a long time to start going fast, this tends to indicate broken piston rings. If you let this go, eventually your piston rings will become so bad that your car will no longer run. 

Too Much Smoke Coming From the Exhaust

If you see smoke coming out of your exhaust, this can be a problem. If you see a lot of smoke coming out and it is greyish in colour this may indicate your piston rings require changing.

Oil Consumption

If your engine seems to use more oil than it normally does, this can mean that your piston rings have problems.

Engine Overheating

If you don't notice your engine using oil, you may start to find that it overheats. This happens because the piston rings help lubricate the piston and cylinder wall. If it keeps leaking you'll eventually burn your engine out entirely.