Re-Using Piston Rings

I am freshening up a cast iron 16HP Briggs engine, and I removed the piston which is stamped .010 over, and have discovered that I can't get .010 piston rings for some reason.  I have not removed the old rings from the piston as of yet.  When I put a standard ring in the cylinder, the end gap is way out of tolerance.  I am wondering if I can reuse the old rings?  I have given the cylinder a quick hone to break the glaze.  Thanks for the input.  Thanks for the space.

It was a decent running engine a few years ago.  The head did have some carbon on it, and I have cleaned it up.  I am putting this engine in a B110 for some stock tractor pulling  The proper route would be to hog it out to .020 over and put the .020 rings in it that I can get new.

http://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cgi-bin/viewit.cgi?bd=ttalk&th=858586
I found this on yesterday’s tractor. I don’t know what it takes to get NAPA to order some through Hastings or Perfect Circle, but there was a phone number to Hastings. I would guess you could get by with the old rings, but new ones would be a good improvement.

Just a thought but why not .020 over and file fit on the rings ?

Edited by ac720nut - 22 Feb 2018 at 5:48am

Agree with AC720, file a set of .020 to fit.

Gary

Make sure you lube the rings real good, and that's from the guy who believes in dry       ringing an engine. The reason? Because you're going to be putting a lot more pressure on everything. I've done it myself and it worked perfectly. Spin it over with the plugs out for 5-10 seconds, then put them in and start it. Don't rev it up just let it run until you feel the heat build up, kill it and let cool out. If it spins free by hand, next time run it longer and a little harder. Let cool again and you should be good to go. You'll get pride out of making it go.  Let us know.   Leon 

PS. Check your oil for metal specks before running it very hard. No use in loosing what you already have. 

PSS Well for a lot of us we're well past retirement age and most of us are limited on how much we can do and how hard we can work. We may not be real current with our memories but we're  pretty darn good at the old times and we have a lot of experience to pull from. My plan had been to help the widows with children, old folks and the poor to maintain their vehicles free of charge for the labor. Well, I got to help a few but a couple of tick bites put the skids to me close to ten yrs. ago. I can do a little bit and maybe gaining a little, but it's a long haul. I like to see younger ones and the inexperienced expand their imagination to fix things and have fun doing it. And fishing isn't a bad occupation either. LOL