Briggs piston ring orientation help.

[marinegrunt]

I have a Vanguard twin cylinder and need some help with the top two rings. One is not quite as thick, light gray in color, has two small blue markings that look like paint, both outside edges have a super tiny bevel, and it stamped with the letter "R". The other ring is black in color, thicker than the gray one, has white paint marks, and is stamped with an "R". It doesn't look like it has a reverse bevel or anything. It looks square. I'll post a picture of the instructions but they don't correlate with the piston or rings.

Thanks!

 

[Scrubcadet10]

In my experience the thicker compression ring goes on top, thinner comp ring below it. The letters face up.
Usually when I do a re-ring I take the old ones off and lay them out on order so I can compare The old and new and how they were installed.
Wait for another answer as someone may know something I do not.

 

[tom3]

What I've seen, the lighter colored ring has a coating and is usually the compression ring, top. The scraper is just an iron ring, if no markings on the flat side of the ring there is no top or bottom. A letter T or a dot would indicate the top. A bevel or notch will sometimes serve to orient a ring too.

 

[marinegrunt]

It's an updated piston so the old rings and new aren't identical. The old both compression rings are the same. The new has the thinner gray and thicker black. I too normally take them apart in order and tape them together which I did. Unfortunately it didn't help me this time.

Neither ring has a dot or a "T". They both have an "R". These are OEM Briggs piston sets. I've rebuilt a handful of engines but have never seen an "R" stamped on them. I would assume the blue and white paint would mean something? I assume the "R" goes up because it's the only marking?

The black ring doesn't have a reverse bevel but, being thicker, seems like it might be the scraper ring. I'm just assuming though just because it looks similar to the old two compression rings on the original piston. You would think Briggs would update their directions with the markings on the rings.

 

[marinegrunt]

Here's another thought about the markings. If you look at the picture the light gray has one small black mark to the right of the blue marking. The black ring has two small markings to the right of the white marking. I wonder if that's their way of saying ring #1 and ring #2? I just hate to guess on it though.

 

[Scrubcadet10]

Briggs will know.
1 (800) 444-7774
Or
https://www.briggsandstratton.com/na/en_us/support/contact-us.html

 

[bertsmobile1]

Well the instruction tell you.
Get your magnifing glass out and check the ends of the ring
As perviously posed, the markings always go to the top so that solves the orientation problem.
The instruction also show two different shaped sections the beveled edge ring is the top ring
the tapererd face ring is the bottom.
You might need to stand the ring edge on on a flat surface ( mirror is good ) using a square the hold the ring true to the surface.
A back light of some sort will shine through the contact surface and show what the shape of the ring really is.

 

[Mower King]

The silver ring is the Top ring, the black ring is the 2nd ring. The paint markings on the side of the rings mean nothing. Close to each ring end there will be a stamped number/letter, that goes up.....all stamped numbers/letters go up. Sometimes the black ring has no markings, if so, that ring can go either way.

 

[tom3]

And stagger the end gaps of the rings, not to be in line. I try to not have any ring gap on the bottom, that probably doesn't make any difference though.

 

[bertsmobile1]

And stagger the end gaps of the rings, not to be in line. I try to not have any ring gap on the bottom, that probably doesn't make any difference though.

Only on a fresh bore before the rings have bedded in after that it makes no difference as the rings will rotate around the piston during normal use which is why 2 stoke pistons have a peg in the ring grove