Piston head install questions?

[livefstdieyng]

Soooo, I finally found a part number for Hastings piston rings for 0.010" over pistons. I went ahead and ordered a set and got them in tonight. Funny story, the second compression ring is perfectly in the middle of the tolerance range, however the top ring gap measures 0.021", that's a thousandth over already... Maybe I'm being too picky here, but I think manufacturers made those specifications for a reason. Anyway's the set from Harley has top rings that are within specs, so I'll be using those top rings, and switching out the second compression ring from Hastings (this happens to be the case for each cylinder, I checked every ring in either cylinder for consistency sake).
Now I'm curious, Do people sill check ring gaps, or is this just a thing for race engine builders??

 

[Cooter]

Absolutely check ring gaps. You are doing the right thing:up: To big is unnecessary power loss with excessive blow-by, too small is catastrophic.

One thousandth over isn't a big deal but it's real easy to do it right, right now.