RE-ring it or not?

[4C FED]

I'm in a quandry about whether or not to re-ring my motor.

If you'll recall I put about 6 hrs on the motor then had to tear it down for a bad cam bearing.

I've got the block back from the shop and they did a "flex hone on the bore's to restore the pattern". Why exactly that was done I'm not sure.

But now it raises the question of should I use the existing rings or put in a new set?
The current rings are Total Seal gapless 2nd ring set.

 

[myclone]

Ive been curious about this very subject myself. Ive scattered an engine in ~15 seconds and REALLY hated buying another set of $200 gapless rings but I did anyway just to be safe.

Id like to know if those old rings would have been fine to reuse in another block that was honed correctly (when the engine scattered it broke a rod and pitched it through the block during a burnout and the cyl walls werent damaged. Hence the rings werent damaged).

On a more positive note I buy all my ring sets for SBC and if you buy three sets of the same type you end up with a free fourth set when doing the V6 stuff. :wink:

 

[sytyguy]

I had to have my engine torn down not long after it's first rebuild some years ago. The builder rehoned the cylinders and reused the rings (ductile iron set - can't remember brand). Then about 2 years after that, I had it torn down again to investigate a potential problem. The cylinders were still in great shape, so he scratched 'em up again and reused the rings once more. So, all-in-all, my rings have been installed/reinstalled 3 times over the past 4 years, and with daily usage/abuse they haven't given me a moments trouble.

I don't know if it's the quality of the rings or my luck, but I would reuse them if I were you. I paid thru the nose for that ductile set originally and didn't want to waste them. Glad I didn't.

Hood

 

[4C FED]

Thanks for the advice guys.
The less extra money I have to spend, the sooner she's back on the road.