[Barry_R]

I am not going to "take sides" on this because there is no way to gain anything. But I can say that some of the claims are pretty aggressive to be putting out in a public forum without real supporting information.

I spent a few years of my career working with piston rings and engine bearings on a rather large scale. At one point I had a hand in and was a frequent visitor in the failure analysis lab for a tier one OEM manufacturer of those parts.

Provide some well focused clear images of the piston skirts, piston rings, and bearings from this engine. No excuses for unfocused stuff - my cell phone can take amazingly good and clear pictures. If I can see the sides and gaps of the rings, the sides tops and skirts of the pistons, and the bearings - I might, maybe, be able to provide good information as to what went wrong. Or what did not.

Some of the stuff stated simply has to be repeated verbatim from the second engine guy, and is not an accurate assessment of how certain wear occurs - ie. ring debris does not get embedded into piston skirts from any normal or accelerated wear. We will discuss mechanical ring face failure if appropriate once I see your pictures.

Oil control and compression sealing are two nearly unrelated, but interdependent variables. You can have excellent compression sealing and poor oil control, or the opposite. But if you do something that mechanically fails the ring package, everything will go to hell very quickly.