what is o-ringing?

racer88

Registered User
I was reading in the SC Literature and found something about o-ringing the 3.8 SC, can someone them me what that is?

Thanks
Bennie
 
A groove is machined in either the heads or on the deck surfaces of the block around each cylinder (or combustion chamber for the heads). A copper wire is formed and placed into the groove. The head gaskets are installed and the heads installed on the engine.

As the head bolt/studs are torqued down the copper wire is squeezed and hopefully forms a more positve seal around each cylinder than what is created with the fire ring on the head gasket alone.
 
Not necessarily true about SS. Here is a link for an outfit advertising the service for superchargerd and NOS Motors and tthey are using copper wire.

http://www.hm-performance.com/Catalog/Machine Services.pdf

There are many more out there on the web as well and my 92 is a Coy Miller engine and I believe he uses copper wire as well.

Not to say for sure you are wrong but I would think SS is too hard and would tend to cut the gasket material when the head is torqued. According to the link they can use copper gaskets with the copper wire and it become reusable.
 
Duffy Floyd said:
A groove is machined in either the heads or on the deck surfaces of the block around each cylinder (or combustion chamber for the heads). A copper wire is formed and placed into the groove. The head gaskets are installed and the heads installed on the engine.

As the head bolt/studs are torqued down the copper wire is squeezed and hopefully forms a more positve seal around each cylinder than what is created with the fire ring on the head gasket alone.

Duffy...it would be advisable once the ring is installed to cut a reciever groove on the head (ring goes in the block) as this relievs stress on the ring set up and provides a more positive seal. not doing this important step means that all the torque from the head bolts/studs is resting solely on the rings making the setup more prone to failure. Some engine builders are now even using nitrogen filled silver plated rings. This setup eliminates the need for head gaskets altogether. They even work for such volatile areas as the exhaust manifolds.You can build the entire engine virtually gasketless. These bad boys expand under heat and actually seal better under load. I know of one guy that built a quad turbo big block this way, and was easily standing up to the 45-50 lbs of boost being produced by the four hair dryers. While this is a sweet setup whichever ring you use, it is pretty costly and unless theyre gonna be really racing and driving hard, most people would never need to go this far.

hope ive helped answer your question
 
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ponyeeter,

I never had a question. I was responding to a question about what O-Ringing was. Interesting info you present though.
 
ponyeeter said:
Some engine builders are now even using nitrogen filled silver plated rings. This setup eliminates the need for head gaskets altogether.

What about the water jackets? Without gaskets how would you keep them sealed?

-Rod
 
Water seaping from the water jacket is a problem with o-ringing, mine does it. I have SS wire and copper gaskets. I know Tom Morano has the same issues when he does it The nitrogen filled silver plated rings or something similar are great that is what the formula 1 cars use, they expand with your engine. The draw back is they cost $300 a peice(1 cylinder).

Gary
 
Well I have copper gaskets and a copper wire and it seems to be sealed pretty good. I have a slight seaping prob but if you spray down the head gaskets with some orange silicone you can seal up the waterjackets pretty well.
 
o-ringing

I had my block done and they put in stainless rings.
I spoke with a company that makes copper headgaskets with rubber seals around the water jackets and they said that I could just use their headgasket and the stainless o-ring in the block without a receiver groove in the heads and I wouldn't have any water seepage issues.

Their phone # is in my car. If anyone is interested, I could post it.
 
as i said in my last post, with nitrogen filled rings you could build an engine "virtually" gasketless...and also, not every company/engine builder is going to have the same opinion on the reciever groove concept....but based on my experience and what ive seen done to make big horsepower, the reciever groove is the only way to fly.
I looked up the nitrogen filled rings a while back while thinking up a scheme for my SC (mwuah ah ahhhh) and i found they were available for around 75.00 a set for the cylinder rings, but i didnt know of anyone here that could install them.
 
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water jackets

sry, I'm new at this.....Can someone explain water jackets to me? I have the typical bad head gasket problem on my 89 SC and going to have to replace to keep from leaking steam and overheating......hopefully it'll take out the occasional misfiring as well....seems like we've all had to deal with the head gaskets. What would be the best thing to do while I have the head off? IE what other checks/repairs should be performed.

thanks,

Jacob
 
Water jacket is a generic term applied to the coolant passages that exist in both the block and the heads. You have to get a good seal between the passages that are between the heads and block or you will have a coolant leak....and depending on the location the coolant could find its way into the cylinder.
 
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