Dudeman who builds our engines just saw the pics. Look at that spec of shit between the first and second ring. His commentary below, read through for the logic.
- suspects those are moly coated rings (what rings are those?)
- moly rings should never be used in anything that could possibly detonate
- moly rings start as a steel ring, and a groove is cut into the face + then filled with moly. Usually you can see where the moly ends right next to the ring gap (can't see the gaps on your pistons)
- moly is super hard, and brittle. When detonated bits of moly pop free and start scoring the bore.
- the edge of the valve relief looks pitted from detonation. (We compared to both sets of YCP Vitaras I have here, which have very smooth sharp edges along the reliefs. I was given instructions to cut that down and blend it with a die grinder.)
There's also really uneven ring seating taking place - look how the face of the rings along the skirt sidehas fully seated against the cylinder wall, yet towards the side the top ring has carbon along the top? And the second ring is all over the fucking place. I pointed it out and got "yeah, I noticed that." I asked what caused it and got "couldn't say, a lot of stuff" then he excused himself to get more work done. Maybe Passenger could be buttonholed for some insight.
Oh yah, we also compared the Rik rings that came with my Speedfactory sourced YCPs and the other rings (Hastings or NPR unknown) with the set I bought secondhand that I ASSume came from FJT (and therefore would be NPR since they are in loose plastic cellowraps and there's no Hastings box ? ). What I have all look to be crome coated steel rings even if they are different, on FJT's site they list the Hastings as chromoly rings which got a comment of "no such thing" from machinist dude.