Nothing wrong with re-ringing a piston, provided the ring grooves are
still in spec. as regards ring lands wear. As an engine ages through
wear, some of that wear is in the piston ring grooves. The clearance
between a new ring and the side of the groove must be measured with a
feeler guage to see if it is still in spec. with regards to clearances.
Too much gap and no compression,.

Regards,

John Rodgers
88 GL Driver.

Dustin Schmidt wrote:

>i just bought my first vanagon, an 81 asi/riviera camper.  the previous owner put new heads on the motor and re-ringed the pistons at that same time.  i've heard many times that you are not supposed to re-ring pistons, but i don't remember the reason.  the compression is pretty low all the way around, 110 being the highest and 95 being the lowest so i'm going to be putting a new set of pistons and cylinders on in the near future anyway.  i'm wondering whether i should go ahead and put new pistons and cylinders on now or if it wouldn't hurt to wait.  also does anyone have any recomendations of where to buy pistons and cylinders from?  i was thinking of buying them from aircooled.net.  thanks!!!
>
>
>