Piston ring direction

[phil23fair]

Is there a right way round to fit your piston rings. I'm sure I've read recently that certain piston rings have to be fitted with the lettering on the ring facing the head I think, but searching the forums I cannot find it again. Can anybody help please

[phil23fair]

Found it. It was on the MB website. Lettering on the ring faces the top of barrel

[fastfrog]

thanks! excellent tip....

[dapper]

Never knew that. First I've ever heard of it. Does this apply to all kits or only certain ones?

[tonydevon]

cant see it mattering for ones that are the same shape top and bottom, but I seen lots of shaped or tapered ones on bikes that obviously need to go the right way up

[warts]

Surely 2t rings can only go in one way? The pegs determine that - or am I missing/misunderstanding something?

[phil23fair]

Surely 2t rings can only go in one way? The pegs determine that - or am I missing/misunderstanding something?

The TS1 piston I have got has pegs central to the groove, not offset so the ring can go in either way around

From the MB website
Suzuki pistons

Genuine, Japanese and Far East pattern pistons are available, these usually use a keystone or wedge shape ring, this means if you look at its cross section shape, one edge is sloping down. These can seem to fit either way round BUT can not. The size or the letter R is etched to the upper edge of the ring. These rings are usually drawn wire and chrome plated and tend not to break and are commonly used with the TS185, TS250, PE250 in the Suzuki 190, 200 and 225 conversions of old! Some pattern pistons are of low quality, pegs come out and they expand incorrectly.

Honda pistons

The most common Honda piston is the 205cc conversion which uses the MTX 200 piston, this piston uses a rectangle shaped bottom ring this is not as wide as the top ring and an expander wavy ring fits into the groove before the ring. This ring will not fit into the top ring groove. The top ring is the Keystone wedge type and can fit into the bottom groove, again the size is marked on the ring and fits towards the top. Today these pistons and the conversion is very rare, we make our RT pistons to resurrect old conversions.