Running Too Much Boost, And Blew A Head Gasket.

[devildogadam]

Might not be too helpful, but food for thought.
My felpro .010s w/ arp studs just stood up to high egts and extreme ects. Along with some very high boost for much longer than I was comfort with.
There is much better products out there but these work for me.

 

[6.2 turbo]

I tried copper head gaskets,with an oringed block. They leaked compression into the coolant,pretty much right away. I'm currently running Felpro gaskets with flipped fire rings,and all four corner coolant ports blocked of with PC7 epoxy. They lasted one year,and it's getting compression in the coolant again.

 

[bowtiebutler956]

I am sure Will can comment again about the best material to make precups out of. The non-magnetic GM precups do crack. What material can handle a constant 1000 degree rapid heat cycle and is magnetic? Just Not an improvement rather it is going backwards and a bad idea for hot-rodding. Yeah the good news is any debris that breaks off is usually just impacted in a piston, head, and ruins the cyl and you maybe keep on trucking till it locks up.

Copper head gaskets:
http://www.thetruckstop.us/forum/threads/copper-headgasket.33293/

Thanks for the link WarWagon. I've been doing alot of research trying to find a failure of these CKO cups, as these heads have been on the market for years now, but I've been unable to find any carnage reports on them, or at least not any on the net.. I may go ahead, and try fitting one of my T cups into the head, but I have a feeling they're not going to fit very well. We'll see.

Might not be too helpful, but food for thought.
My felpro .010s w/ arp studs just stood up to high egts and extreme ects. Along with some very high boost for much longer than I was comfort with.
There is much better products out there but these work for me.

Thanks for the report on your Felpro's, and ARP's. I hope mine serve me as well.

I tried copper head gaskets,with an oringed block. They leaked compression into the coolant,pretty much right away. I'm currently running Felpro gaskets with flipped fire rings,and all four corner coolant ports blocked of with PC7 epoxy. They lasted one year,and it's getting compression in the coolant again.

How much boost do you generally run, that you can't keep them sealed up? Wouldn't it create more heat blocking off the coolant passages on the end? Thanks

Matt

 

[Will L.]

I was joking about the x-750 Inconel. The cost would be at a stupid level to have them made and retreated and gains would not be worth it.
I've done a few head gasket mistakes. Cometic failed (like them for gassers). On copper, you have to use sealant around coolant jackets and that creates a slight uneven surface leaving the low spot of all places- cylinder. On my concrete filled drag engines I used copper well, not for daily driving imo. Use victor rienze or felpro.

 

[turbovanman]

IIRC, 6.2 has run upwards of 50 psi and bent rods etc.

 

[uniquediesel]

I think 6.2 Turbo bent rods because of cylinder to bore clearance issues and not due to cylinder pressure via boost.

 

[6.2 turbo]

I still don't know why I bent so many rods. I figured it might be the turbo,so it's just a 54 mm now,instead of 64 mm. The combination of a HX52,and a maxed out stock pump,with no governor,bent the rods every time,but one. That time it spun the mains instead. Cyl psi was so high it pushed the main caps away from the block ? Probably around 40 psi of boost.

 

[bowtiebutler956]

I think I'll leave the 40 psi boost for the Cummins guys. I did a couple WOT runs seeing a peek of 30, then I turned down the wastegate to 25, and on my next WOT run, she started pushing coolant, and lots of it!

Matt

 

[Will L.]

6.2 turbo: you sound like a fun guy to hang out with. Our rule back in my hot rodding days was who ever blew their engine got a free lunch or dinner from whoever in the group has been the longest since blowing one up.

 

[turbovanman]

6.2 turbo: you sound like a fun guy to hang out with. Our rule back in my hot rodding days was who ever blew their engine got a free lunch or dinner from whoever in the group has been the longest since blowing one up.

In that case, I'd be fat right now,

 

[bowtiebutler956]

When I picked up my Felpro 9521PT +.010 head gaskets today, I noticed a very distinct difference between them, and my old head gaskets, that you can clearly see in the pics below.
The new Felpro's have an extra layer of metal in the area between the outer cylinders, and the coolant ports, where my old gasket blew out at, and its actually one piece with the fire ring. While my old gaskets did have the extra layer of metal where they contact the precups, they absolutely didn't have this extra layer between the outer coolant ports, and cylinders. These look like they should be a much better design!
My old gaskets had the ROL brand sticker on the box, but the box itself said DC gaskets. They were the economy gaskets, and obviously very inferior. I still had the old gasket box on my shelf because I didn't use many of the gaskets, like exhaust manifold, valve cover, oil pan, etc.. So I took a couple pics of the old box to show as an example of what NOT to get.

I thought about posting a link to the place where I got them, but in all fairness, they were working fine till I went crazy with the boost.

The pics below should illustrate what I'm talking about quite well.

Matt

 

[n8in8or]

Nice info! I haven't looked at my gaskets closely yet, but I also went with the .010 over Fel Pros....glad I did!!

 

[bowtiebutler956]

Well, the heads are on. I torqued them in increments of 40, 80, and finally 120 lbs. I installed all the orings below the studs, and am very happy with their fit, and I have no doubt they will eliminate any chance of coolant getting past the studs. Here are a couple pics.

Matt

 

[6.5L]

Excellent

 

[Burning oil]

Do you have a pic of the tool used to cut heads for orings?

 

[n8in8or]

Nice, Matt!

 

[bowtiebutler956]

Excellent

Thanks.

Do you have a pic of the tool used to cut heads for orings?

You bet. I used a step bit, that I chocked up in my drill press, and ground one of the cutting edges off, till it was the right size to just act as a guide. I then used a 3/4" bit to knock the sharp edge off from around the hole, so it wouldn't cut the orings when torquing. Pic below.

Nice, Matt!

Thanks Nate.

Matt

 

[n8in8or]

Did you use the ARP lube on the nut end of the studs or your normal assembly lube that you like?

 

[bowtiebutler956]

Did you use the ARP lube on the nut end of the studs or your normal assembly lube that you like?

I used the ARP grease the studs came with. My assembly lube is more of a really thick oil, and I didn't want to risk having any of the lube travel down the studs, and end up on the head gasket prior to getting them torqued.

Matt

 

[n8in8or]

Ok thanks, Matt. I was wondering about that lube and the higher torque spec. I was under the impression that the lower torque spec was because of their lube and then if you use something else you torque it to the normal specs. When I installed mine, I used the ARP lube liberally (I bought a brush-in-cap jar of it) and torqued them to the spec recommended by ARP (90 ft-lbs IIRC). Maybe that's part of my coolant loss problem too? I guess I'll find out when I take the engine apart. I'm seeing enough people go to the higher spec on the studs that it doesn't seem to be a problem, so I think that's how I'll put my new engine together.

Man you're up early!