I’m doing a bottom end rebuild and I was wondering what everyone thinks about nippon racing piston rings
I would just go with oem. You know they work.
NPR products are very cheap… I would NOT use them.
Use Hastings or OEM rings, no others. Unless using aftermarket pistons, then I’d go with that companies rings.
What’s your basis for Nippon Racing being cheap. What if I told you that most of the OEM knock off pistons and rings are all made by the exact same people, and re badged by different companies for sale. It’s a common trend in performance parts. One guy will tell you hastings sucks, another than cp sucks, and a third that oem can’t hold turbo pressure. it’s all based on any number of experiences.
You can go on any number of honda websites and find PLENTY of people that use them and their rings with no problems. Everyone said OBX was cheap and i have to this day never had an issue with any of their parts. Even ran their header for a long time.
My basis is formed on seeing an NPR piston/ring setup seize to the (oem) rod of a motor that had less than 500miles on it. That was using oem rods, and NPR rings/pistons/wristpins.
As you said, everything is going to be based on experience… I’m not going off of what I’ve read on any number of websites. Granted that’s my one and only experience with them, but I will never use another NPR product.
They work for you? Awesome. Glad you put your two cents in there.
35k+ miles and never had any issues with the rings. 200 +/-5 psi across all four cylinders
I rebuilt my LS engine (stock spec) with these rings and I haven’t had a problem with them. I have good compression across the board and not burning any oil. I have 1200 miles on the engine now and it’s still running good. Just remember to measure your ring gap and put the top ring on the piston with the letter N facing up and your good.
Ryan
I’m using NPR pistons and rings on a current B16 build I have going…I’ll update once I have the engine running and broken in.
Ng
I’m using CP rings because they came with my pistons and I haven’t had any issues. I’m not saying anything about the NPR but if I simply needed to decide on rings I would trust OEM.
Truth is Nippon makes a lot of OEM engine components for Honda. There is a chance are that if you buy rings from Honda you might be getting Nippon parts. However, Nippon builds to Honda’s Quality Control for the parts they supply to Honda. The parts they sell themselves do not have to meet Honda’s requirements. I have used them in customers engines and have never had any comebacks due to Nippon parts failure. These were all stock rebuilds though! As to holding boost or high RPMs, I can not say, but I am sure there is someone out there doing it!
I said I would update, so here it goes. I bought NPR pistons and rings (P30/.020 over) from ebay and used them on a B16 build I did for my 95 Civic EJ. I used non-detergent 30w engine oil for the break-in period (500 miles).
I got the engine running a couple of days ago and so far no problems (knocks on wood). I ran the engine at idle for about 30 minutes and then changed the oil filter. Drove for about 70 miles keeping an eye for smoke and temp, no issues. I took it to get smogged (southern cali) and passed with the original cat from 1995 (barely). I’m taking it easy trying not passing 4000 rpms. I have yet to kick in vtec. I’m going to continue to drive it like that until it reaches 500 miles on the rebuild.
So far I’ve been driving it to work and just passed 200 miles on the build. I would like to add that I used an ebay gasket kit that included an evergreen head gasket from vendor “mizumauto?” So I’m keeping a watchful eye on temp and coolant levels.
I will do another update once/if I reach 500 miles on this build. I will do a complete oil & filter change and start to push the build and see what it can handle. But so far, so good on my budget build. The engine runs very smooth and it’s not smoking or overheating.
Ng
You shouldn’t wait ‘that’ long to hit vtec. As long as it was assembled properly, (and a reliable basemap is used) you should be able to take it up to redline without issue.
I’m not saying go beat the hell out of it… but ‘fully breaking it in’ involves running it through the entire RPM band.
[QUOTE=unified112;2236185]You shouldn’t wait ‘that’ long to hit vtec. As long as it was assembled properly, (and a reliable basemap is used) you should be able to take it up to redline without issue.
I’m not saying go beat the hell out of it… but ‘fully breaking it in’ involves running it through the entire RPM band.[/QUOTE]
I agree with this. I would be driving it normal which involves Vtec just not abusing the hell out of like unified112 said. I broke my motor in like that and have no problems. I just have a LS motor but I still reved it over 5k rpm if I needed to. Sometimes I would cruise in a little lower gear to get the rpms up a bit and then I would drive with them low. I guess I just changed it up all the time and my motor runs perfect. I have 1500 miles on it now.
Varying the RPM and using the transmission to slow the car creates vacuum and helps wear down peaks/rises in the fresh hone, it helps seat the rings.
I mean, after the first 10-20 miles it’s broken in… Motors are prettymuch ready for dyno-tuning after initial startup.
If you’ve got a decent basemap and checked your plugs to make sure they’re looking good… hit sum Veetak y0.
This is only my second engine build and I guess I’m traumatized from my first. My first was a toyota corolla engine and the rings never seated properly and it was smoking/burning oil shortly after getting it running. Major bummer after all the work I put in that car. This one seems to be going a lot better. With the way it’s been running so far, I have no doubt it will handle everything I throw at it…
Ng
Update:
Ok I now have 500+ miles on my rebuilt engine. No overheating, no smoke/burning oil, and runs strong. Recap: stock JDM B16, bored .20 over and used NPR P30 pistons and rings from ebay. Also used an ebay (mizumauto) headgasket kit. I’m confident that this build will now run without any problems. I will update if for some reason the engine has issues related to the pistons, rings, or headgasket.
This is just one example, that if done right…and with some luck, you can use NPR and evergreen parts on your build. Next up, once funds allow, will be an lsvtec build using NPR pistons and rings.
Ng
Nice man. Glad to hear your work paid off for you. I’m about to bring my block in for machine work and then I’m using NPR rings some P73 pistons on my LS/Vtec. Can’t wait. Any pics of the the engine? I know what you mean about being nervous. I always think I hear something or it doesn’t feel right but I got my brother to drive my car and my friend and they both confirmed that everything runs fine. Good power (for a LS motor). I installed a oil pressure gauge and a wideband to monitor a few things. I reused the pump that came on my engine so I want to know if it craps out lol.
I didn’t take any pics while I was putting the engine together, but I did take some towards the end…
Here is the engine when I had it all together with the tranny
In the Civic engine bay:
Once I got it running…
A few notes:
It’s got a cheesy LS tranny. What a difference from my gsr tranny in my teg! The head was bought complete from HMO motors and was bolted on as-is. This car will be used more so as a daily driver/back up vehicle. Can’t wait now to get back to work on my teg.
Ng
Looks good.
That’s exactly what I’m using my Integra for. I just picked up a GSR cable transmission so its nice to hear it’s a big difference over the LS. I haven’t put it on yet.
[QUOTE=PR8urVTEC;2237774]Looks good.
That’s exactly what I’m using my Integra for. I just picked up a GSR cable transmission so its nice to hear it’s a big difference over the LS. I haven’t put it on yet.[/QUOTE]
Night and day with the LS & GSR tranny. Luckily the civic is a daily driver so I’m not stressing the LS tranny. Now I know first-hand what a huge difference gearing makes. Plus the fun-factor with driving a screaming vtec engine mated to a gsr tranny 
I looked for a gsr tranny but there was a lot of junk out there and some folks wanted more than I had budgeted for the tranny. This was a budget build which I’m still not done.
Ng