I'm wondering how much thinner the cheap china made Briggs and Stratton piston rings are going to get. I measured the top ring at .048. The older rings are .090. What's next.
Star I don't think he is referring to getting thinner rings for an older engine. I think he is referring to the older Briggs engines had thick rings with wide piston ring grooves, whereas the new engines with the lighweight pistons use narrow ring grooves and thin rings.
If that is the case then maybe the OEM are just wanting the engines to wear out sooner. Now automotive rings are probably being made of much grade of metals as technologies have improved greatly over the years. This could even this translate to the small engines too if the OEM will just use it.
Just take automobile engines they use get only 50K before needing major work, now we getting around 300K+ out of the engines. Even my '79 Chevy got 150K before I had to rebuild it.
Just got the materials used today are not the ones our fathers had to work with. Who would had thought that we would have oil-less compressors that are in use today. Still those cylinders do get pretty warm.
I even got a chainsaw with a NCC cylinder and plain piston and rings that will outlast the last PNC that came on the saw.