Im currently on my second set of HMR fire rings, anybody that can help me any at all. About the wussies thing, i have a buddy that told me he could fix all my problems with blowing head gaskets, his idea is to ratchet strap my head to my block All fun and games aside, I havent got the head off the truck yet so im really taking a shot in the dark asking for help but oh well.
It all started with the set of twins me and my partner built for my truck. The truck ran for 3 days with the twins and then pop goes the weezle! So i pulled the head and i have 2 fire rings blown, crush on all of them were within specks of what Haisleys recomends none of them miced out at being crushed to little. so i check the head with a straight edge, get new fire rings and one new stud, one was stretched a little, put it all back together with everything clean enough to eat off and then i put the DD pan on and around 400 miles on the truk and i popped another one. when it blew i never built boost over 30 pounds. I havent really checked for loss in compression but i have a wonderful indication of oil in my radiator and a guyser of a leak behind # 6, Im wondering what went terribly wrong. 30 pounds of boost? The right crush on the original set of fire rings, how clean i managed to get the block and head. I think my biggest enemy is the thousandth deep grove that i have pressed into my block from the fire rings. What would my options be, pull everything and have the block fireringed and drilled and tapped for 14mm studs. I understand i need to pull the head and check the crush on the new fire rings and that will soon come. Any response or anyone with a similar story willing to talk about it would be appreciated.

 

I am sure the 12 valve guys will chime in here but I think your high timing isn't helping the gaskets
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Something is amisss.... Fire rings should hold as long as they are done correct. Was the head resurfaced before the fire ring grooves cut? What did you torque the head to and did you retorque it?

Doug Smith

 

24 degrees with studs and firerings should last FOREVER!

Sorry to hear you're still having trouble Luke...sure wish I could be of some help. I don't know anything about firerings.

I'm sure you'll get it figured out!
Chris

 

Thanks chris. havent talked to you in a while. As far as the torque, i torqued to 126 first round and heat torqued to 128 the second round. The head was cut when i bought the truck and im preety sure he had it resurfaced, the ring grooves were cut at .019 for a 10 over gasket. The timing is high but i never built over 75 lbs of boost and the las time it blew i was runnning around 30 lbs when it blew, sounded like an intercooler boot blowing off but i wasnt that lucky