Installing rings on SD22

[elminero67]

Has anyone installed new rings on a SD22?
Or does anyone have manual with good, step by step instructions for replacing the rings?

Love my SD22, but she blows oil through at a high rate. As a footnote, I have never rebuilt a motor or gone inside a diesel, so Ill need good instructions or someone who can give a few pointers....

Thanks, Duane

[ehtrain]

well if you have never done this before there is a question you need to ask yourself. do you have the all the tools? you need torque wrenches, ring compressor at the very least.

but you should be checking and measuring the pistons also for proper spec and wear limits. you could find your pistons are worn or your cylinder wear is excessive. I guess it all depends if you just want new rings or if you want to see what kinda shape everything is in. what about the bearings if its worn that bad?

jegs.com has reasonable prices on many engine tools. bore gauge, micrometer, dial indicator with stand/ and magnetic base, torque wrench 5-150 ft/lbs

and if you google sd series mauals abit you will find a manual with sd22 stuff. i may have even posted manual links in my build ka24e- sd25 swap. in this forum section

[elminero67]

Thanks for responding. I have all of the tools. Piston wear/cylinder wall condition are two of the questions I won't know until I get inside the motor, And I dont want to pull anything until I have access to a good manual...
Can anyone recomend one or know a source where I can find something that gives the specs and detailed instructions?

[ehtrain]

i just googled
"nissan sd25 sd22 service manual"

and found many sources to download manuals from. took me about 4 tries to find a complete one with disassembly and reassembly.

[elminero67]

Thanks- found a manual in PDF form online that seems to address it well.
I'm still intimidated about pulling the head: although it puffs too much blue smoke and goes through oil pretty quick, it drives nice and always starts. I'm afraid that I'll find the cylinders are too far gone or that it will need a total rebuild, both of which will require more money than i want to put into an sd22...

[asavage]

Has anyone installed new rings on a SD22?

Duane, diesels do not respond well to rings-only replacement.

Bores wear oval and tapered, they do not wear round. If you have an oval bore and install a round ring, it takes a very long time for the round ring to wear oval to match the oval bore. The high compression of the SD will allow a lot of gases to escape to the crankcase during this time, and you may find that the the blowby after re-ringing is as bad as before.

Boring to oversize, new pistons & rings, is the usual practice when overhauling diesels. While oversized pistons used to be available for the SDs, the usual method for SD overhaul is to replace the pistons and liners, rather than boring oversize. The SD is a dry-liner setup. The cost of aftermarket piston/rings/liner sets is fairly reasonable. The OEM Nissan sets are still available as well, possibly of better quality, and much more expensive.

Info on one kind of aftermarket piston/liner set is in this thread.

Info on tools to remove the liners (including a surprising video on install by Galen) is in this thread.

[elminero67]

thanks for the helpful advice and link. Fortunately I am not in a hurry as the truck runs well and I don't use it every day, so I have time to either find a replacement sd22 or (gasp) rebuild it ($$$!).