Messed up piston ring?

[chixwithtrix]

I'm rebuilding my engine with a Venom piston and OEM cylinder. Went to put the cylinder on yesterday and seems somehow the 2nd compression ring got bent or burred on one side of the ring gap because it is now hanging up on that side. So irritated right now.

Now instead of 'floating' in it's groove on the piston where you can easily slide it around, squeeze in and out when compressed, etc, the one side hangs up and seems to be caught on something. It will move, but with considerable force, not longer 'floats'. Its like one side of the gap got bent or burred, and that is slightly digging into the piston in it's groove making it stick in place.

For example, imagine you are looking at a piston with the rings loose around it like they normally are before installing in the cylinder. If I squeeze the gap closer together on the 2nd compression ring at the ring gap when its installed in the piston, instead of both sides of the gap being gently pushed together and returning to the loose state when I stop squeezing, the one side stays where it was compressed and the other side of the gap returns the ring to the loose state. The one side catches in its groove. I thought that would be an issue if installed since it might not function correctly and cause blow by.

I figure if I sanded or filed on the top and bottom edges of that gap that would remove the unseen issue on the one side, but I'm not familiar enough with tolerances, etc of the rings and don't want to compromise a $1500 build just because of this ring issue...no matter how much I wanted to ride today...I'm just not sure what to do.

Is there something I can do without harming anything or do I need to order another ring set?

[chixwithtrix]

nevermind, got it ona really flat surface and I can see it bent downward slightly. Guess time for new ring set, damn

[Bowtie]

Sometimes you can get lucky and flatten them, but I would only do this if it's a last resort, grab a new set and give it another shot.