Whats the #1 symptom of cracked/broken ring lands? Im paranoid alot about motors lately, especially my most recent setup, and I dont want to take any chances. My friend had a motor with ALL 4 broken ring lands and the motor ran forever and it ran decent, so Im paranoid maybe that mine are cracked/broken, and I just cant tell.... Car doesnt smoke, tick, staul, idle gay or anything. I havent compression tested it yet, but Im going to tonight. Any other stuff Im overlooking? Im looking to get tuned soon and I dont want any problems..... thanks.

 

excessive amounts of pressure venting from valve cover breather or catch can
low compression (ex. 190 190 120 190)
poor leakdown test results
loss of power
minor smoke from tailpipe (varies...could be none at all)
sometimes there will be a faint ticking noise from the motor while idling
oh and if you take the pistons out some may be cracked between the rings

 

Another symtom is a major change in exhaust tone under light load.

 

I had a single cam that had all four busted ringlands.. like it was to the point to where they all just fell out when i popped the piston out. The motor ran decent for a while but smoked a little bit. G/L -Ben