hey guys. bout to start building my truck once i finish my F150. truck is going to see drag strip time, but i want to still drive it on the road a bit. not sure what size injectors and stuff i want to use, but i was thinking maybe 300/400's and maybe a 72mm or 76mm?? not sure on turbo sizing, but on to the point. i have H11 studs, heads(have springs, hardened seats, ported myself, and valves), and pushrods sitting here.. My question is do i need o-rings or fire rings??? i see that the cummins fellers o-ring their stuff, but all i seem to find for PSD's is fire rings. let me know guys. thanks

In industry terms, generally an "O" ring job refers to a groove being cut into the block for a strand of stainless ~.041" piano wire to be tapped into. This wire acts to add strength, retain, or to hold in place the gasket which will sit on top of it - generally this is for use with annealed full copper gaskets. It is not used as the actual sealing ring itself.

The "fire" ring kits provide an annealed steel ring which replaces the lighter duty formed steel webbing which is used in an OEM gasket as the actual cylinder pressure sealing ring. This ring resides in a groove cut into the head or block, but is not pressed into place.

Fire rings are the method of choice for this application.

At what boost levels are fire rings essential? All other factors taken into consideration.

How much is a stock head gasket good for?

ive seen some guy's around here that headstud with the stock gasket and have never had a problem, some over 450-500+.

stock gaskets w/ studs seem to hold 80psi. the reason i am doin fire rings is because its a pullin truck so i cant put 10k miles on it waitin on the gasket to seal good.

So y'all think just studs with the factory gaskets? i can't stand the thought of a busted headgasket so obviously anything that i can do to help it i'm down for. just didn't know if o-rings were good with factory gaskets or if firerings were ok to run down the street if i felt the need to do so. haha.

if your not making huge power like 750+ and your motor is not built to the gill's as in being nothing but a full out race truck only, i see a waste of time and effort, not to metion the price of installing the firering with all the machine work and all, and the gaskets.



stud it and be done.

ok so the stock gaskets with H11 studs will hold up around the 600hp range??? thats all i'm trying to make sure of. also if i would benifit in any way from o-ringing it then i would be down for that if i can find someone to do it. haha. thanks guys

David Lott has the tooling to cut the fire rings if you would like. Give him a call and see what he thinks.

i will call him this next week i guess. i have heard that fire rings are no good for street driving, but i don't know that to be true so i wanted to ask the big guys. haha. i figured David would have the stuff to do it. thanks Nate.