I was just wondering why people don’t use total seal rings in there turbo builds? I mean no boost loss and no ring land problems right?

 

There are 120 years of engine building experience in the way we make things today.

Some of the problems to overcome with a closed ring:
How would you give the ring a pre-load and at the same time avoid them binding under heat expansion?
Not to mention how one would go about manufacturing such a piston i.e. fit the ring to the piston.

Ring land problems are usually caused by detonation.
You cannot make a turbo conversion on a non-turbo engine without taking great care on the innards.
Forged pistons for strength, more clearance for the greater thermal expansion, less compression against detonation, enough fuel not to get into a lean condition under boost.
Modern well tuned engines show no boost loss. If you get blow-by in such a setup the engine will be damaged in short time.

 

I had Total Seal rings in my drag racing car years ago. It wasn't a turbo, but they worked great.

This will explain them a little better, error_401.

 

Ah, oh, my bad - thanks TomA

OP was referring to a product...
... sorry, didn't get that.

There is a reason we keep the ring gaps, especially with forced induction. If you cannot bleed off blow by the top ring can start to flutter, because of the high pressure between the two top rings. One of the reasons why high performance pistons use the accumulator groove. Seems one of the reasons why Total Seal recommends only one of these rings.

Learnt something new.
Probable reason not to use such rings: Price and you have to gap an additional ring.
Additional consideration I would take: Heat resistance of the thinner material (might be the reason why TS recommends it as second ring). Wear between the two rings.

 

As I mentioned, I ran them in a drag racing engine that was NOT driven on the street. So I can't comment on their long-term durability. And that was almost 30 years ago, so I imagine there have been some product improvements since then.