I'll go ahead and be honest, i dont know a lot about this subject and im lookin for a little helpful insight. I just bought a set of 12mm ARP studs and will be getting my head work done sometime here in the near future. I havent blowed my HG yet, but its bound to happen sometime. Ive got my turbo wastegated at abotu 43psi right now and i'd like to bump my timing on up some. Im just not sure on what would be the best for me. I just want to do it once and be done with it. Which would hold up better...

1. studs, .020 marine gasket, o ringed head
2. studs, copper head gasket
3. studs, copper head gasket, orings (ive heard copper HGs and orings are not reccomended to use together)

I kind of like the idea of the copper gasket, because they are actually a sheet of metal, and to blow it, you would actually have to blow a chunk of metal out somewhere right?

 

Copper HG's arent meant for daily driving, they dont seal antifreeze very well. Some people get along ok with them but most dont. I went with the .020 marine, studs and o-rings.

 

Ive heard of some people having trouble with that combo. Maybe u know this guy?https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=120978

 

yeah yeah, I dunno what happened there. Its been seeping for awhile and I guess the new turbo turned the seep into a gush.

 

Im just messin with ya man. Sorry bout your luck. Youre luck must be like mine, nothin ever seems to go the way its supposed to!

 

Id say with a .10 over gasket, and some ARPs

ur pretty good to go. My guess on the blasted headgaskets is simply due to the fact that they werent retorqued? Im not sure. How many times must one retorque the Head after a new gasket goes in?

Rick

 

5-6 times on the retorques but really until they stop giving. once they have stopped moving your usually good to go.

teddy bear id recomend calling haisley or cousin billy and talking to them, cuz I personally think youll want fire rings. if you havent ever seen the diffrence youll be supprised. also cb will cut your head and block

 

correct me if im wrong all the post ive seen says you have to trim the marine gaskets to work with the 24v or do they no make a 24v marine gasket

 

PDW has a modified 12v marine gasket to fit a 24v.

 

I am in the same boat right now...looking to install studs/orings. I am curious about the difference between o-rings and fire rings. Also, who is cousin billy? Got a phone number? Thanks!

 

im not sure but i think the modified 12v marine gasket i have on my 24v is all metal and about 2-3 times the weight of a stock gasket.

 

I retorqued mine 5 times and it still popped.

 

Don't have a clue who cousin billy is, but Doug out at PDW explained the difference between fire rings and o-rings.

Fire rings have a special gasket where the gasket fire ring part is waterjetted away to make room for a copper or soft steel ring that if done correctly rest is a groove cut in the block, the head will have a matching groove and when clamped down and torqued it will crush the ring into the grooves and seal the cylinder.

O-rings have grooves cut in the head that match the middle of the gasket fire ring, a wire, usually hard stainless is pushed into the groove and should be around .010 to .020" proud of the head surface. The idea is that they will hold that part of the head gasket down harder so it will hold more cylinder pressure.

 

cousin billy owns BRC diesel teddy bear knows who he is and he cuts fire rings in his shop and will do your head and block and does great work.

Haisley also cuts fire rings and every head we have had them do (about 4-5 between all my friends) have been fire rings and there work is top notch as well. They have years of experience and fire rings are what they allways recomend to us. (go to their site and you can see the fire ring gasket set.

Also you can get a marine gasket for a 12v and just lay it over your old 24v gasket and with a good punch set there are just a couple water passages that need to be enlarged. if you want to go the oring route or just replace a standard with a marine. you can get the marine in a .20 over and it will cause about a half point compression drop.

 

10 over marine studs and orings have held me just fine.