Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

That's why I wondered what the gasket looked like ...if this thing is in detonation not much will help .....

No det, just slightly pressurises the cooling system, gasket looks fine, head face is fine etc.
It just lifts the head a little through peak TQ, then it comes back down & seals up again.
Head & block faces are very fine finish - I do quite a lot of high hp turbo engines, I know what surface finish is required!

Dandy sealing rings?

KnightEngines wrote: ↑Wed May 02, 2018 2:32 am
I suspect the head is bowing between the bolt holes, likely clamping it down harder will not work.

That's what they all do.
Re machine the face, they get thinner and weaker and fail again sooner.


Bin the head, start with a fresh one.


Normally you'll get 800 ish before that happens.


E85, you need less timing, it's too much timing that kills it quicker.Too much peak cylinder pressure.
You'll get pre ignition before you get det and you can't hear pre ignition.

Bronze fire/sealing rings would definitely help , I had a customer with a 4g54 engine , 50lb of boost on alcohol and we could never keep head gaskets in it, we tried cometic head gaskets, multiple types , oring and reciever groove with copper head gaskets, super fine surface finishes done on grinders, tried self energising sealing rings, gas filled sealing rings, 1/2 inch head studs, then even went to 9/16 head studs, nothing would last very long, the tuneup looked good , nothing else was being hurt or damaged ,
Eventually we went back to 11mm arp 2000 studs and used a bronze ring that locates in a groove in the deck of the block , the groove is just like the groove that you cut to fit orings .
We now do this to all our serious turbo import engines, we cut a groove .040 wide and .030 deep in the block , the o.d of the groove is usually .300 larger than the bore at a minimum, we then have rings made in a CNC lathe that clip into that groove , the I.d of the ring is the same as the bore size, as for a head gasket we have 2 options , you can use copper which we get cut to suite each application and when we do we make the ring .002" thicker than the gasket thickness, then apply sealer around the coolant and oil passages and away you go but I have found a guy that will also cut me custom composite gaskets, we measure them and make the ring .003" thinner than the gasket , put it on dry and that works great to without the mess of sealant on the gasket, I haven't seen one of these rings fail yet and have had them in some very extreme applications, such as a billet sr20 with 80lbs of boost and a stock block and head sr20 with 60lb, a world time attack 4g63 with 50lb , subarus with 50lb , even a nitrous BBC with 2000hp

APM, Could you clarify your "fire Ring" machining process? Did you say you used this on a BBC? Not sure what you meant when you said the the
O.D. of the ring is .300" larger than the bore size at minimum, and the I.D. of the ring is the bore size... yet the groove you cut in the deck for the ring
is .040" wide and .030" deep...?? How wide is the Bronze Fire Ring? Is there any receiver groove in the head for the ring?...Thanks for re explaining...
We have a 4.840 bore space BBC with a 4.620 bore and are lifting the heads just enough to pressurize the cooling system. We just tried copper gaskets with S/S o-ring in block and No receiver groove in head....Looking for options to fix it for sure if thats possible with our sizing... This is a blow thru Alcohol F-2 procharger motor with 18 # of boost Big Chief heads...

mike fabish wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 9:45 pm APM, Could you clarify your "fire Ring" machining process? Did you say you used this on a BBC? Not sure what you meant when you said the the
O.D. of the ring is .300" larger than the bore size at minimum, and the I.D. of the ring is the bore size... yet the groove you cut in the deck for the ring
is .040" wide and .030" deep...?? How wide is the Bronze Fire Ring? Is there any receiver groove in the head for the ring?...Thanks for re explaining...
We have a 4.840 bore space BBC with a 4.620 bore and are lifting the heads just enough to pressurize the cooling system. We just tried copper gaskets with S/S o-ring in block and No receiver groove in head....Looking for options to fix it for sure if thats possible with our sizing... This is a blow thru Alcohol F-2 procharger motor with 18 # of boost Big Chief heads...

You have to have a receiver in the head at-least the thickness of the head gasket.......