The V8 Owners Forum -

Erm

Hi All,

Started on the head refurb today, thats when I had a close look at them, and got past the jaw dropping porting and looked at them properly

There are on the mating face of the ali heads just outside the chamber area, what looks like a stainless steel ring type insert, so that the insert is "Proud" of the face of the head

I have never seen these before - can some kind soul advise me what they are and if I have to uase somwthing other than composite head gsakets, or anything special that needs to be done with these on the heads / torque swettings etc, I anm using ARP studs etc on top end

Thanks

Nige

Wells Rings,--Ringed block or heads usually have a wire ring for increasing the clamping pressure on the fire ring of the gasket, Desirable, yes, some are simple SS mig or tig wire, other are more complex [read expensive] nitrogen filled tubes, well worth the effort of keeping them where the area between the bores are limited due the the 96mm overbore you should have

Some require copper head gaskets, can't get composite gaskets with copper fire rings anymare. Many of the TVR's that came with them had them milled off because of this...

Much depends on the size of the ring, and how malleable the fire ring used is, I think it's V8D that have had success with a normal composite gasket and ringed heads.