Piston rings are small engine components. You might think they don’t have that big a role to play eh. Surely, an engine can still run with damaged or even no piston rings right? Don’t be so sure!
Can an engine run without piston rings? An engine cannot run without piston rings. If run without piston rings, the piston and the cylinder walls will get damaged due to piston slapping and strong metal-to-metal contact.
In addition, there will be a loss of fuel mixture into the crankcase, engine oil getting burned, and loss in pressure – all resulting in low power and low mileage for the motorcycle.
Let’s deep dive into what piston rings do, why are they important, and why an engine cannot run without piston rings.
What do piston rings do in an engine?
Piston rings close the gap between the cylinder walls and the piston and ensure that the fuel mixture does not enter the crankcase.
Along with sealing the gap between the cylinder and the piston, piston rings also ensure that the engine oil flows across piston walls to keep the piston lubricated. In addition, piston rings facilitate heat transfer between the piston and the cylinder.
There are 3 types of piston rings attached to the outer diameter of the piston, namely – the compression ring, the middle ring, and the oil scraper ring.
Each piston ring has its own set of functions which are discussed in detail in the post here if you are interested.
Why piston rings are important
Now, we know that piston rings seal the gap between the inner cylinder walls ad the piston. This effectively segregates the combustion chamber and the crankcase.
The combustion chamber is where the combustion fuel mixture comes in, burns releases energy, and exits the chamber as exhaust gases. The crankcase houses the crankshaft and the engine oil. The crankshaft is dipped in the engine oil sump.
Back to what piston rings do, they are sealing the combustion chamber by covering the gap between the piston and the cylinder wall.
This ensures two things. First, there won’t be any loss of pressure and leakage of the fuel mixture into the crankcase. And second, the engine oil in the crankcase won’t enter the combustion chamber and get burnt.
Maintaining pressure in the combustion chamber is extremely important since any pressure loss will translate to a loss of power – which will be easily noticeable.
Can an engine run without piston rings?
An engine cannot run without piston rings unless you want to have damaged and worn-out piston and cylinder walls in no time.
Here is what will happen if you run an engine without piston rings.
First, there won’t be enough power generated in the motorcycle since the pressure will be lost in the combustion chamber for the piston to move up and compress the fuel mixture. There are no piston rings to seal and preserve the pressure here.
Second, the fuel mixture will leak across the cylinder walls and piston outer diameter. The fuel will be lost in the crankcase and cannot be used to generate power. Huge loss of fuel, power, and mileage there.
Third, as the piston moves up and down the engine oil will enter the combustion chamber and get burnt. The engine oil which is present in the crankcase lubricated the crankshaft and other components encased in the case. Regular consumption of the oil will result in low engine oil levels in no time.
And lastly, expect lots of piston slapping, scratching, and damaging of the piston along the inner cylinder walls. Without piston rings, the to and fro piston motion won’t be smooth and guided. The gap between the piston and cylinder walls will result in metal-to-metal contact – damaging both these components.
In short, running an engine without piston rings is totally a bad idea since it will damage both the piston and the cylinder walls – not to mention, loss of fuel, engine oil burning, loss of pressure, and hence low power and mileage.
Are piston rings really necessary?
Um, even after all the above explanations on what happens if you run the engine piston rings, can’t convince you that piston rings are necessary, I don’t know what will.
Piston rings are absolutely necessary for the engine to work smoothly. The piston, cylinder walls, fuel mixture, engine oil – all require piston rings to operate in the combustion process.
Needless to say, after all these explanations, without piston rings your engine will get damaged in no time and you might be forced to rebore the engine cylinder and replace the piston. Or worse, replace the engine itself.
Related Questions
How many miles do piston rings last?
On average, piston rings last around 100,000 miles. However, it depends on numerous factors including engine condition, piston rings health, engine oil level, and quality, etc. The piston ring material is strong and does not wear easily.
If maintained well, piston rings can last as high as 250,000 miles.
What causes piston ring failure?
Here are the main causes for piston ring failure.
- Engine oil is low or of poor quality
- Air filter is letting in dust
- Oil filter is not working right
- Engine blowby
- Fuel flooding in carburetted engines
For a more detailed description, here is a post on the causes of piston ring failure and a post on symptoms of piston ring failure.
To Summarize
Piston rings are an essential component of the engine. They close the gap between the piston’s outer diameter and the cylinder’s inner walls – thus, sealing the combustion chamber.
Sealing the combustion chamber ensures that there won’t be any loss of pressure or any leakage of the fuel mixture into the crankcase. Also, no engine oil coming into the chamber gets burnt.
An engine cannot run without piston rings unless you want to have damaged and worn-out piston and cylinder walls in no time.
Here is what will happen if you run an engine without piston rings.
- there won’t be enough power generated in the motorcycle
- the fuel mixture will leak across the cylinder walls and piston outer diameter
- as the piston moves up and down the engine oil will enter the combustion chamber and get burnt
- lots of piston slapping, scratching, and damaging of the piston along the inner cylinder walls
Without the piston rings, the engine will get damaged in no time and you might be forced to rebore the engine cylinder and replace the piston. Or worse, replace the engine itself.
