I'm letting myself get too involved in this - but what the heck
If gapless has any true quantifiable benefit at less than WOT, why is it not used by any OEM in any application? It does not matter whether we're talking about a Bentley at a couple hundred Gs, a Viper, Zo6, GT500, or a minivan or a econobox. None of them, from any known major manufacturer has gone gapless. These companies have the testing resources to verify any improvement in mileage, gain in power, improvement in durability, or reduction in oil consumption. Any of those would deliver ample reward to offset the cost of the change.
So lets summarize:
1) Few if any Professional race teams use the gapless design (some may - no way to verify that they all don't)
2) None of the OEM manufacturers use a gapless design.
3) The only folks that use a lot of gapless rings are those that believe the advertised benefits and lack the comparative resources to truly verify any gain or loss.
At best, you are out the added expense of the parts - assuming that the performance in your application is equal. The very obvious decision by both race teams and OEMs should indicate that any benefits cannot be verified or quantified regardless of cost. At one time I had access to test documentation that clearly showed negative aspects to gapless rings from a dynamic performance and oil control perspective - I no longer have access to that test data (job change).
Its the internet - - and I'm just another keyboard jockey out here. You don't have to believe me - - and you certainly don't have to agree. But I'm much more comfortable selling folks parts that deliver value for their dollar. And I do not consider gapless rings to be among those items.
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