In process of building a 4g64 based 1000+ hp engine would it be a good idea to oring machining both head and block? At 40 + psi on a 4g63 2.3 engine with arp studs and hks hg i'm experiencing sealing problems, so my idea would be to machine head and block for putting a solid ring , is it a bad idea?

 

Figured this would be a good place to ask.. at what level is o-ringing reccomended or required? say you were looking to trap 150

also, i read somewhere that if you o-ring you use a copper head gasket or does it not make a difference?

 

O-Ringing seems to be a preference thing. Some reputable builders on this forum do NOT O-Ring their blocks. Some do.

@giangi: What are you doing for crankcase ventilation?

 

As regards ventilation i opted for two an12 holes on the head cover, and it seems to be ok, at the moment they are vented to atmosphere, but i'm in process of building some breather tank....
You can see them in a picture at this thread: https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ly-958-hp.html
Pics are not that much, sorry for this....

 

I recently got my car back from GRD, (genesis racing development, North of Chicago) and blew my head gasket after less that 4000 miles. 1000 of which were break-in miles, running no boost. I only ran through the gears 3 or 4 times, but after the last 1st through 4th tear (redline at 8200, and did not tach out any gears) I saw white coolant smoke pouring out of my engine bay and exhaust.

After speaking with my local tuner (A very reputable and well known tuner in York, PA) they told me that they stopped running cometic head gaskets because they experienced failures due to poor sealing and other issues not commonly found when running OEM head gaskets.

Funny thing is, I believe my builder originally planned on using an oem, but for some reason I can't recall, the cometic gasket worked better for my build (2.3 stroker)

After reading the posts on this thread, I am inclined to go OEM and never look back!!! If my tuner tells me cometic fails, and 9 out of 10 recommend oem (including pizzamanevo who uses an OEM head gasket, and holds the hp record on my local tuner's dyno), Im inclined to say go with stock.

 

Stock head gasket, 700+ hp 40lbs+ no issues

 

Stock HD, L19's, non o-ringed block.

 

Stock HG, L19 studs, and O-ringed block on my personal car...

I've been involved in building and have tuned a few 600+hp Evo's and all have always used stock headgaskets. They have typically all been o-ringed either in the block or in the case of Buschur Racing the heads were o-ringed. One car is on a 6766 and as soon as it hit mid 700's it started pushing coolant but was on standard ARP head studs. Swapping to L19's the 1x1 method without disassembly cured the coolant pushing problem. This was done only to see if the head was infact getting lifted and pushing coolant. Well it was confirmed it was the problem and is now a mid 700hp daily driver until the next tuning round and set of upgrades.

 

That's because you're running a 2.4L motor. Running a stock 2.0L motor and a stock HG have no issues.

 

If that's the case.. What's the best HG for running built 4G64? Modded Stock HG?

 

AMS 2.4L HG, Power Enterprises HG, or Cometic HG only through English Racing would be my top 3 choices.

 

Are you using the cheaper arp,s or L19 studs.

 

I went with stock and used h11's with an o-ringed block

 

huh.....I guess i'm the lone solder who uses a cozzy HD and L19 studs.....by the sounds of things OEM works fine to.

 

complete stock HG