Doing a little fishing here guys (sorry, no disrespect meant there Darby), but I was toying around with the idea of replacing the rings on my 72 L24. My neighbor claims that when I started her the other day he saw blue smoke. On subsequent starts I have had others watch and no such smoke has appeared. Long and short of it, if I'm going to go through the trouble of replacing the rings, I might as well upgrade the pistons. Soooo, I would like opinions on what to replace the stock ones with.

Thanks in advance, happy Z'ing everyone!

A small puff of blue smoke on cold start is far more likely to be valve stem seals, not rings.

Lets keep searching for an answer anyways, I get the puff of blue smoke and burn thru 2 quarts per tank. I need to do a rebuild and have the same question in mind. Just a simple upgrade with pistons and rings, bearings, seals, freeze plugs, etc. etc.

Best rebuild kit?

best affordable pistons and rings?

I also plan on lightening the flywheel to 16 pounds and ballancing everything, installing my rebuilt N42, stage 2 cam and everything else will be transfered over.

Thanks in advance to all who input.

Dave.

Yep. If you do a valve job on a motor that has some miles on it, you'll have do the other stuff sooner than you may have planned so you might as well do it all at the same time.

Are you going stock or oversize pistons? If stock, NAPA sells Perfect Circle rings and Clevite bearings. Both are top quality. If you're going oversize, .030 over is easier to find rings for than .040 over! Same with pistons, .030 over seems to be easier to find than .040 over. ITM makes a .030 over piston but not .040 over. Silva-lite makes a .040 over piston but I had to get Total Seal to custom make a set of .040 over rings. Standard pistons and rings are available from a number of vendors. Felpro gasket kits cost more but are top quality (especially the valve seals and pan gasket).

I was thinking stock. Would it be a large pain in the @$$ to go .030 over?

Stock is fine! ITM makes a good cast replacement as well as Silva-lite or just have your stock pistons checked out and cleaned. NAPA sells Perfect Circle rings and Clevite bearings.......both are top quality! Stock sizes will be no problem. If you go .030 over ,expect to pay $50-$75 for overbore $85 to $100 for rings and another $80-$100 for bearings and $200 for cast pistons.