Hey guys what method works the best for you to seal head gasket on high power/boost application. I am building spare motor and not sure if going with steel o ringed block and mls gasket with protrusion of 3 thousands is a good idea. I was trying couple methods in the pest at high power evo's from oem head gasket no o rings ( it was holding good until the 40psi+psi) than I tried steel o ring with mls gasket protrusion 5 thousands, this was working perfect to seal it on boost, no issues at 45psi+ but coolant was going between the gasket straight to the oil because head gasket was not sealing properly I think too high protrusion with metal o ring to metal oem gasket. Coolant was disappearing so slowly that took me over a year to find where the problem was. So now I am thinking to lower the protrusion on the new block but not sure if any of you guys tried that before. Let me know what works best for you! I know many of you will say oem gasket no o rings will work good, yes it will until some point that I am above with power. Thanks!

 

Not too many of our active users have O-ringed from what i know @krys88

I follow a YT channel that has discussed the method. Its certainly Art & Science
The guy i follow does this:

• SST spring wire
• BHJ o'ring fixture http://www.bhjproducts.com/bhj_conte...ooling/org.php

The BHJ website seems to offers some of the preferred methods and tips & How-to

Im no expert, but have found the O-ring procedure to be interesting

Cheers,

 

We oring the head, seems to work more reliably. OEM gasket on 63 blocks, cometic on 64 blocks. Headgames does the service for us so I'm not sure the spec.

 

Thanks a lot for the input. I also tried to o ring the head but the problem is that steel o ring is pushed into softer aluminum head and practically this o ring is doing nothing especially with 625+ head studs and torque to 100lbs. . Unless you make it with high protrusion but it is the risk to damage the head. For me the best results was to o ring block but when I did 5-6 thousand protrusion it was holding boost perfect but coolant was traveling between the gasket to the oil because of too high protrusion and o ring was not moving into the block.

 

We use a copper wire oring in the head.

 

My block is oringed. I believe the wire is ss but I am not sure being the pics I have doesn't have the actual o ring in. I also use an oem gasket with it and no problems so far.

 

Seems like SST is the preferred wire @ .041 for a wire protrusion of approx .005 -.006

Some use annealed wire & others use spring wire. Some ring the head but most seem to ring to block

Have heard that ringing the head (if a gasket failure occurs) the cut grove may get damaged rendering the orig cut ineffective for re-ringing

 

My talons head was oringed and I have blew out the hg a few times so I just stopped oringing. It seems like when you do the head and it pushes coolant it never stays sealed.

 

I did block o ring with .041 with protrusion of .005-.006 and for some reason coolant passages where not sealing properly. Now on fresh build I am doing steel o ring mls head gasket but o ring will be .003 protrusion. I hope this will fix the coolant sealing problem.

 

I have a modified oem gasket in my car. Being my pistons were a little larger they just modified it to fit the setup. I would continue to use the oem mls. I think your .003 protrusion should be ok. Just make sure you retorque after its been warm make sure everything is right and tight. That is one thing they did to mine and so far no issues.