does it matter how rings are gapped?

ivor from uk here
i have overhauled several engines in the past and when i fit pistons i always gap the rings equally and there has never been a problem but last night i was watching engine assembly on u tube and an engine expert said there should not be ring gap on thrust side of piston... any comments
 
My son builds high performance engines for a living. He says line them up with the wrist pins and stager them.
 
It doesn't make much difference as they travel around anyway. Just don't put the gaps in line with each other.
 
That's pretty correct, it is usually recommended to stagger them on installation, but they slowly rotate in the grooves when it's running, keeps the grooves clean, don't stay where you put them. Make sure your end gaps are not too tight so the rings don't butt together when hot, there are charts with end gaps by bore size, so much per inch of bore
 
Yes. As stated, they move around. But it's nice to start out with no gap on a "thrust face". And, as stated, that means placing the gaps over/near the pin.
 
The top groove wears the most, my dad would chuck the pistons in a lathe, cut the top groove square, then put a steel spacer above the top ring to tighten it up.
 
When I was a kid, I bought an ancient 5 hp Mercury outboard motor that was in pieces. Completely disassembled. $5. The most distinct memory of that project was the little notches machined into the ends of the rings. Those little notches fit over a matching lug in the ring lands. All of the end gaps were lined up, but I can't remember how in relation to the wrist pin.

That little motor ran like a scalded dog.
 
(quoted from post at 07:55:54 09/10/17) When I was a kid, I bought an ancient 5 hp Mercury outboard motor that was in pieces. Completely disassembled. $5. The most distinct memory of that project was the little notches machined into the ends of the rings. Those little notches fit over a matching lug in the ring lands. All of the end gaps were lined up, but I can't remember how in relation to the wrist pin.

That little motor ran like a scalded dog.

Two stroke engines like motorcycles and lawn/garden equipment commonly have pegs to keep the rings from rotating...mainly because they don't want the rings to bust in the intake ports or to score the cylinder if the ring ends get to the ports
 
Built or rebuilt 100s of diesel engines and always made sure they were not all gaped at the same place.
 

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