Need L rings for Qunicy Looper bore 2.470 or bigger

[hshawwpba]

If anyone can provide info on where to find L rings for Qunicy Looper engines bore size 2.470 or bigger I need some for restoration project.

[Bob Rusnak]

I made some for my 44 Quincy Looper. Took some cast iron pipe put it in a lathe and started cutting. It is not hard, just need to know how to run a lathe.

[Smitty]

That would be okay for a display motor, but Bob, don't you think water pipe is sort of marginal for a runner? Howard, if you get a new cylinder sleeve of the right size from LA Sleeve, that's a uniform and fine-grain iron that might make good rings. I don't have my new-to-me lathe set up and leveled, but if you're in no rush, PM me. If you are in a rush, call Dwight. Meanwhile I'll see what I can find out about hand-making rings, since I never tried it. Give me all the relevant dims of ring and groove, and how you'll pin it.

[Bob Rusnak]

Agree, iron pipe is not the best but wanted to see if it could be done. Had some C & D L rings to get the cross section dimensions. Several tries and yes they could be made. Probably expensive if you had to pay someone to make them. The engine really need to be bores and new pistons for it to run anyway. If I ever decide I would need to have pistons made as where do you find oversize 44 Looper pistons. In that case I would use a standard single ring configuration.

[John Schubert]

Agree, iron pipe is not the best but wanted to see if it could be done. Had some C & D L rings to get the cross section dimensions. Several tries and yes they could be made. Probably expensive if you had to pay someone to make them. The engine really need to be bores and new pistons for it to run anyway. If I ever decide I would need to have pistons made as where do you find oversize 44 Looper pistons. In that case I would use a standard single ring configuration.

Try your old buddy Alan Van Weele, he probably has many. If you can't find him here go to BRF he visits there a lot

[Smitty]

How sloppy are the pistons, Bob? Zak used to build up piston skirts with a spray-on heat-cured moly coating, up to .004" thick; the first half-thousandth burnishes of quickly, but after that, the coating lasts a long time. I have done this for various parts on various vehicles, having been put on to it by a Boeing lubrication expert in about 1967. A company called Kal-Gard sold lots of "Piston-Kote" to bike racers in the '70s. Super-clean the parts (hot vapor de-greasing is best), spray-coat the part using an air-brush and an old phonograph turntable, bake at 300F for an hour. The company is now called KG Industries, and the product is now called "Gun-Kote," but it's the same stuff.

www.kgcoatings.com

In improving the fit of old pistons, before doing the spray, I knurl the skirts, an ancient technique of auto machine shops, and then clean and spray over that. Not so sure I'd want to do that on pistons that were going to be raced, however.

(EDIT) Just used the link to see what's on the KG site these days. It's not quite clear which product they now use for piston skirts, so I asked them to email me this info. I'll add to this when I find out more.

[Bob Rusnak]

The bores are out of round, would not be a good idea to run it as is. In the future if time permits I may decide to do something with it. Would like to see it run once more.

[treadguy]

Find Steve Litzell and have no worries.......

[mr2boats]

Don't know if they still have but Hastings made some for Stan Levendusky back in the day you could call them I got a few from Hastings a while back for a C Looper.

[Smitty]

Called Hallum yesterday; he said that when he was working on Honker's loopers he would buy finished rings from the Perfect Circle catalogue. These were cast iron, chrome-faced; I think he said 5/32" thick. He made a lathe fixture to hold these rings, compressed to the bore size and pinned in some way so they wouldn't skid, and slowly turned them to the L-ring shape he wanted.

[BmJuby]

Find Steve Litzell and have no worries.......

Second endorsement for Steve Litzell:

Steve has done the rings for all my loopers, a 40ci and 15ci. He's also going to do a 20ci and 44ci in the near future for me. He can also do pistons for them as well.