I recently bought a 85 phazer and the top end was freshly rebuilt. but it hadnt been rode since. i was skepticle so i pulled the heads off and found that the piston had some play in the cylinder, i think the previous owner honed them and put stock pistons and rings in. I bought a used motor for the cylinders. how do i go about setting the piston in the cylinder? do i use a tool to compress the rings or do i do it by hand? should i take the piston off the rod? any help would be awesome. thank you
YooperWoods
New member
You don't need a ring compressor, just pinch the rings tightly with your fingers on each side and carefully slide the cylinder down. You're going to use your index finger, or middle finger, and your thumb wrapped around the piston to squeeze the rings into the lands. Because of the shape of the cylinder sleeve the rings will slide into the front and back of the cylinder with room on the sides for your fingers, if that makes sense. Make sure the rings are lined up with the locating pins and leave the pistons on the rod.