Steve, are you saying you bought new rings for a standard bore, and had a problem with the ring gap? Sounds as if the gap was too small, since if it was too big you couldn't have done anything about it.
Way back in the 1950s and part of the 60s you had to expect sometimes to take a file to the rings to get the gap exactly right, but in those days machining standards were woeful. I haven't heard of anyone having to file ring gaps in decades. What brand were the rings?
