HI all
I am hoping someone can offer advice I am putting new rings in a engine I have bought and the rings are seized in one of the pistons I have tried heating the piston (didn't work) I have left it soaking in a tub of release agent for a couple of days (didn't work) so now I am at a loose end. Any advice would be appreciated.

Gary

Starting at one end carefully tap the ring with a bluntish chisel and it should eventually
break free. You'll feel it give a little then gradually work your way round. Plenty WD40
or similar.

Use a piece of broken ring as a scraper to clean the grooves after.

I take it you cannot get behind the seized rings?


Why are they seized ?


Is it they have been cooked/melted or is it they have lived out of the engine without lubricant and seized that way etc ?

Another vote for blunt chisel or a flat screwdriver.

You will definately need to tap them...small tapping stick and fine punch, go very easy as you do not want to damage the lands.

Throw them in a bucket of paraffin for a week first, and maybe try a gentle tap with a piece of softwood/tapping stick across the lands, see if that moves them.


Piston on your bench, plenty newspapers under them.

And very carefully with a fine punch deliver some taps to the rings, be careful not to trash the piston lands. Or you will need new pistons.


I had a Land Rover years ago, when purchased it hadnt run for ten years, plugs loose in the pots,topped up with paraffin everytime I went in the garage.

It eventually gave way after I popped it with a huge pipe grip on the crank pulley.


I was lucky and didnt break anything.


Post a picture...

And wear Goggles rings shatter

Thanks for the replies, The engine was sat with no head on it for a while so I can only guess that that it what caused the rings to seize. I did think of tapping them with a small punch but fear got the best of me. I guess a few more days of soaking is needed first.
Gary

I once stripped a Spanish Dodge 300 engine which was seized.

It was dipped while running at full tilt into a saltwater dock.

It blew the head gaskets out.....



And the pistons were so seized into the pots , we jacked the truck up on a hardwood block on the base of the piston and hit the block with a 14lb mell.


They never came out.


Hammers sometimes bring solutions, sometimes they dont.


Just go easy round your pistons .

How much have you tried heating them?
I had the job of freeing a Lister 4 cyl diesel that had seized from having bad water corrosion & it was a real minimum spend job. The barrels on the Lister are individual & were lifted off with the piston & rod still in, the pistons needed to be hammered out with a block of wood on top of the piston.
I've heard of folk boiling them in oil but that seemed too much of a fire risk & I like my workshop without fire damage so I boiled them in water to free the rings. It took a bit of doing but I got them all out (4 on each piston) with some gentle tapping apart from one oil control ring which I snapped.
The broken ring was replaced with one from a Ford 3000 tractor which had a slighly larger bore & filed the ends down to get the gap right.
The bores got honed as much as practical & it went back together, it's still in use mabye 5 years later but it uses a helluva oil I'm told!

I put the pistons in boiling water for about 5 mins. I am going to try and tap them tonight with a chisel and a bit more bravery than I have been using so far.
Strangely though I can't see any corrosion it's as if the rings are too big for the groove.