Deves Piston Rings, wrong part? Need help >:(

[bboesser]

Hey Everyone.

I'm SEVERELY ANNOYED at this situation, after waiting months for a whole bunch of engine rebuild parts. It seems as though a wrong part has been put in with my piston rings, and is doing my head in!

Deve's use a 4-Piece Oil Ring,

Starting with some kind of Expander? Then the 2 rails and spacer.

The expander doesn't seem to fit properly at all, it doesn't look anything like the installation pictures when I put it on, and when I try to put the other rings on, they don't compress down enough in the groove because the expander has too much tension. The bottom rail can't even get enough space to sit in the groove and slips of down the side of the piston, stuck under the protruding edges of the spacer.



It this just a wrong part or am I doing something wrong? I will upload pics now


Any help is greatly appreciated as this is driving me nuts, nothing can ever just go smoothly for me... EVER.

[bboesser]

Here are the rings, and the gap the expander has in the piston groove

[97 SL320]

I'd say the expander ( bottom right of first pic ) is too small. I'd e mail the maker and see what they say.