Quote Originally Posted by DennyW
A collapsed ring is when the ring can no longer expand against the cylinder wall to seal it. A broken ring amounts to basically the same thing, cannot seal against the cylinder wall anymore. Tranny fluid might work. A lot of times, this is an over time thing, and the piston lands have become scored, and will capture the ring tightly. So the the metal, or carbon will not allow the rings to free up. It would be worth a try. You could soak it, tap lightly, and see if the rings would free up, but more than likely, you will have to get into it to fix it.
Thank-you for the feed-back a well informed answer. I have spent almost 1-1/2 days getting to the head gasket in this dam 1997 3.1 Grand-Am " give me a gm 350 any day" Now the next big thing is to drop the oil pan, there are over 20 items that need to be removed just to remove the oil pan. I am now at a cross roads Do I sell it for a few hundred dollars or do I spend another 2 or 3 days getting to the oil pan.