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Hi Bill,
    I experienced the same thing on my one and only  wasser boxer rebuild
last fall.  No ring ridge , still had factory hone marks on the cylinders,
no scuff marks on the pistons, cylinders and pistons all checked like new,
227k miles on original engine.  Imho the wasser boxer is  well engineered
and built except for the nasty head leak problem on some of them. Actually
the rings were still within  specifications although I did replace them and
sent the new pistons and cylinders  back.  I have never seen so little ware
on the cam and lifters. And never an engine so  very clean inside.   I
thought it was probably because  the  2 previous owners  used  synthetic
oil.   They converted me to synthetic .  I have seen  several other posts
proclaiming the same amazement with so little wear on the bottom end of the
wasser boxer.
    I agree with your statement that other engines always have signs of
wear. I have seen ring gaps of 0.225 inch . My experience is with V8 engines
and two  2L air cooled engines.  I think  we tend to over look how very
solid the wasser  boxer engine can be  when it has had TLC all its life.

Darrell

-----Original Message-----
From: William Dummitt <williamd@COMPUSERVE.COM>
To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Friday, July 10, 1998 5:23 PM
Subject: why no ridge in waterboxer cylinders?

Any time I've taken apart an automobile engine, there is the ever-present
ridge at the top of the cylinder at the limit of piston travel.  The
exception is the one and only waterboxer engine I've rebuilt- it had no
ridge at all despite 120k mi.  After cleaning and honing there wasn't even
a trace of a ridge, even though I had a ridge reaming tool ready to go.  Is
this the norm?

Bill