getblown5.9

ok so 2 weeks after a tranny rebuild and clutch upgrade i was preparing my truck for its first pull this evening. when checking fluids i found what nobody wants to find...


a reservior and radiator full of nice thick black bubbly oil. yea...bye bye HG

this was after driving to and from the ocean (450mile round trip)in 95+ heat, with not one sign of over heating, no white smoke, no loss of power/boost NOTHING

i dont know how long its been blown but now i must decide, do i o-ring it? or just replace and stud it? or do i go all out with a head porting job while its off?

displacedtexan

O-Ring and port while it is off, if you can afford it. I highly doubt you are through BOMBING, do the O-Ring now if you can come up with the $, because I bet you will NEED it later.

getblown5.9

yea if i can find a place i trust to do the rings ill have them done, the porting however, i dunno yet.

i think i can prolly get the head decked, checked, and ringed for about 500, and 400 for studs, throw in a HG and im looking at about $1k to get it all done

wana12v

I would have it fire ringed or c ringed if I were you. porting isn't really neccesary. the head already flows well (compared too a 12v) how many mile are on your truck 24v's wear out valve guides fast. but I would send it to haisley have them flux it get it flat fire ring it and send it back with the matching gasket and head studs.

JD730

Deffinately look at the guide wear, thats why I had to pull mine off. Truck did run worth a darn. Exhaust vavles were leaking like a sieve and one intake had a bad seat, barking in the intake. Some of the valves where worn pretty badly too and all at 84,000 miles. The shop found cracks running into the exhaust runner through the seat. But they don't know what is acceptable on a 24v head, so Doug at PDW set me up with one he had redone that was o-ringed already and all set to go. I also had my head taken out to the shop he uses out in carlise, PA so they can pressure check it and tell me is its junk or rebuildable.

judge88

since we are close pm me if you want a good place to take your head. we just took my dads in and the guides were real bad . they also oringed it a while back for us. great people.

P.J

Might try Kunkles, they have a place down near you that does machine work and a few parts houses up here. I've never had anything fancy done, just decked some heads years ago.

Mglass1045

What exactly are fire rings? I've heard it mentioned a time or two but not too sure what they are. Do they involve machining like o-rings? Thanks

JD730

The way it was explained to me, fire rings take the place of the fire ring part of the gasket, it needs at the minimum grooves cut in the head. Grooves in the block and head if you want to do it right. They do not get pressed into the head or block, but are laided into the groove and squezed in the groove to form the sealling part of the fire ring.

O-ringing is exactly what it sounds like, they machine a groove in the head and press in a stainless steel wire that protrudes out around .010" or so and puts more pressure on the fire ring part of the stock headgasket or a modified marine gasket like I used.

Clear as mud? Good I hope I didn't confuse anybody.

getblown5.9

JD whats different between a regualr HG and the marine version. i see alot of guys run the marine, but i dont know why

JD730

The marine version is just heavier all around, mine was about 1/2 again the weight of the stock HG. All the sealing traces for oil and water are huge compared to the stock HG. Its also extra insurance along with the o-rings that I won't have problems blowing a HG or having one of the sealing traces disappear like I had happen on my 93 one time. Every time you pull a head on one of these its like opening pandora's box. On that note if your head turns out to be not rebuildable(which the odds are not good, I was told around 30% are junk) figure on spending close to 2k between a head and misc parts/gaskets.

I have some pictures I think I'll post a few tomorrow at work because on my dialup at home its just painful.

BTW how many miles on this truck?

getblown5.9

79,800 miles on the truck

HOHN

Jim Fulmer is running just O-rings, and his head holds ~900hp just fine.


Why would anyone Fire Ring a head that already prone to cracks???

Repeat after me: "O-Rings, good; Fire Rings/C-rings, bad!"


Leave the Fire/C rings to the pullers running 100+psi who NEED them and have a big budget. O-rings are fine for any streetable truck...

wana12v

if he runs a marine gasket the depth needed to be cut for fire rings isn't deep at all. not sure on specs but probably not much off from a o-ring job. and with labor and parts being the same the real question is why not?

getblown5.9

i want to get this done as cheaply yet reliably as i can.

i know these things:
-I need o-rings
-I need head studs
-I need a new HG

now, this is where i need to decided if the marine gasket, a new (possibly ported) head is needed, as well as valves/guides etc etc.