Attached are some pictures of the circlips that came with my AeroVee engine components. Becasuse there apparently was a few problems with the circlips coming out and scoring the cylinder walls, a service bulletin was sent out to change the clips to a different model. The new clips were slightly larger in OD than the original ones. Not knowing what the real problem was I decided to change my clips several months ago before I even fired my engine for the first time.
I knew that I had installed mine correctly as per the instruction sheet that came with the new clips. However there was not any mention of clip orientation in the AeroVee Engine Assembl;y Manual so I had to wonder if some people may have installed them incorrectly and that is why they came out. I posted the information on the AeroVee site and several people commented that it didn't matter and a few agreed with me and the directions. The last sentence in picture 3 says it all, "If done wrong, the keeper(circlip) could work its way out". Why take a chance??
I took the pictures through a magnifier lens so the difference can be seen. You can feel the difference between the sharp edge and slightly rounded edge. This difference is caused by the stamping process when the clips are manufactured.