How critical is ring end gap on these (1995, 225, EFi) engines. I do heavy equipt. for a living. Have done many engines, a few 2 cycle engines. I have this engine since new, w/ 637 hours on it. I have treated it well, only good gas only good oil, last year switched to full synthetic & used quicklean w/ every drop of gas. Book calls for 110 -120 for compression, last year I had 100, this year, last week I had 80, all even across the board. checked gauge on other engines, then pluged it to my compressor set at 110, gauge showed 110, so gauge is good. pulled engine & dismantled. Came apart like a dream, perfectly clean inside. textbook clean. I figured on reringing after a clean up hone, no ridge at top of cylinders. bought rings & gasket set, just to see I put a ring inside a cylinder new ring had an end gap of .024, old ring in same cylinder had a gap of .021. I left bottom ring on piston as a stop, so ring would be at same depth when checking. Went back to dealer to speak w/ the tech, he said end gap is not important, the ring loses tension, new rings will be fine. This does not seem right to me, am I missing something, or is there something I don't know. Thanks, Joe
