The distance between the top of the piston and the top of the wrist pin can't be changed w/o changing the compression ratio or the stroke of the engine. QED, any increase in ring groove width comes at the expense of at least one of the lands.

 

1. GM, like every other car builder on the planet, does not make piston rings. They are a purchased part designed in conjunction with suppliers such as Sealed Power, Mahle, Hastings, etc.

2. You can't install pistons with wider ring grooves without reducing some combination of top land thickness, ring to ring clearance or skirt length. All are spectacularly bad ideas.

 

2. You can't install pistons with wider ring grooves without reducing some combination of top land thickness, ring to ring clearance or skirt length. All are spectacularly bad ideas.

But we are talking about .5mm your right though there is some length removed from either the skirt or the top ring land IM GUESSING I don't make the pistons but I bet they increased the overall length to compensate I should have measured.

the new rings installed with pistons were 1.2x1.5x2.5, w/ 2.5mm Oil Ring
There are a few different sizes... the stock rings on the 2010 were tiny and so was the oil control ring

2.4L Ecotec Oil Consumption | Chevrolet Complaints (chevroletproblems.com)

idk makes sense to me to go with a totally different piston and ring setup to eliminate that problem...

 

Yea they do have thicker ones you need to have different pistons they are only like .5mm thicker and the ring grooves in the pistons need to match.

 

QUOTE I would just order the thickest vertical thickness ring possible that increases the rigidity of the rings and stops the oil burning from the thin rings. <
There is no thicker option, what the piston ring land width and depth are spec'd and are sized for are what you use. Thicker ring would cause ring binding and loss of compression and oil control not to mention damage. The ring issues today are from low tension rings that the entire industry has gone to. Honda's had a big oil burning issue in their engines 10 yrs. ago. from that.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I knew the head bolts and cam bolts were torque to yield but I didn’t know the rod bolts were. I picked up some sealed power piston rings after I started doubting the DNJ ones, so I will have both available to me.

 

You can do them with it in the car. I don't think the brand matters that much the gm rings are just really small and actually the dnj ones are really good I would just order the thickest vertical thickness ring possible that increases the rigidity of the rings and stops the oil burning from the thin rings. If you go and throw another brand in there and don't pay any attention to the size it will not do you any good u will just be rebuilding the motor the same way.... the design was bad not the rings. No brackets just the passenger side motor mount.. pull the oil pan off timing cover off cylinder head... only unbolt rod bolts, u need all new hardware, its all torque to yield. Im guessing the rings u do pull out of there will not look bad at all, mine had a broken piston. But yea the DNJ parts look and weigh the same and are made the same way and look the same as gm ones... your going to want new pistons. zzperformance.com is a good spot to get some hard to find parts like the rod bolts... U will want a micrometer to double check everything. These engines are actually a really interesting project maybe take some pictures for us all.

 

I was hoping to do it with the engine still in. Pull the head, I think there’s a bracket I need to remove to pull the oil pan then just push the pistons through the top

 

So you're going to hone the cylinders with the engine still installed?

 

Are you replacing these rings with the engine out of the vehicle, or still in (if that’s even possible)?

 

You're right, what was I thinking! It's not like Amazon is a generalized marketplace that sells from reputable manufacturers like Dorman, ACDelco, Fel-Pro etc.

 

Your gonna trust Amazon rings over GM's ? Talk about crappy.
Sealed Power, Mahle, Hastings are just a few of the old brand name suppliers of rings.