All I know of are OEM Stock, and "widefire" which I don't know much about other than the rings being thicker.

I plan on getting a Vittesse stg3 in the future... Can someone enlighten me on what different Headgaskets are out there and what else I should upgrade while the cams and head are off the block?

 

One of the good combos is the Widefire and an O-Ringed head. The O-Ringing is $130 at a place in Burnaby (they have my cyl head right now actually, the O-Ringing is just the tip of the iceberg ) and I think Widefires are $120ish at SCAN (Not sure tho, cant remember. If you want one and a full gasket kit, the WF comes by itself, and you get a stock headgasket in the kit).

 

There's the "ultimate" by Guru also, but the danger there is the engine blows before the h.g. does.

Or you can just put some JB weld on there.

 

what is the advantage of O-ringing the head? Can I get the widefire without O-ringing? Can I O-ring with a stock HG?

 

O-Ringing makes a better seal between the head and the headgasket, less risk of blowing under higher boost pressures. As far as I know, the stock gasket isnt recommended for use with O-Ringing. Widefire can be used without the rings, its a factory part IIRC.

 

I remenber a post by Tony Garcia where he argumented that there was no difference between the stock HG and the widefire same thing he said. I have the MLS from Performance developments.

 

the who to the what now?

 

The MLS gasket is a couple layers of thin steel sheet, aka "Multi Layer Steel".

Performance Developments is a company in the US somewhere.

 

Anyone got a cutaway or image of a properly o-ringed head / block? I believe in order to be most effective the block must also be ringed.

 

Here Rich;
http://www.cometic.com/

It's way better than stock or widefire and much less expensive than O-ringing.

 

ohh wow, cometic gaskets are awsome. If i was replacing a head gasket on a 951 thats what I would go with.. thay hold up great on the GM applications i have seen them used in.. including boosted cars like the intense racing 9 second turbocharged GTP..

My motor has a widefire in it now from when it was rebuilt.. seems to be working out fine.. but hte motor only has like 45K on it..

 

how do i know if i need the 100.5mm or 103mm bore? AFAIK my engine has never been opened b4 now.

 

If you haven't bored the motor, stock size should do you fine. The headgasket debate will continue as long as this board lives.

MLS, nice gasket but you can't o-ring anything and use it. If you o-ring head, block or both, you have to use stock or WFHG. Performance developments does not recommend o-ringing with the use of their gasket. I will be using a WFHG on my new engine since both the block and the head are o-ringed.

MLS

o-ringed block

o-ring head

 

If the surfaces are not perfectly smooth (machined). I would stay away from an MLS.

O-ringed block would be ideal but there positives and negatives to both scenarios of o-ringing.

I am running an o-ringed head with a wide fire.

 

Ive had pretty good luck with just the wide fire ring head gasket when running stock power on a track car - this includes the 250bhp TS cars. But I also have 2 of 3 old head gaskets that showed the beginning signs of failure when removed.

I just o-ringed my spare block for when I want to run chips/higher boost on the track. Most of the heavily tracked 944 turbos that I am aware of are now o-ringing the blocks (copper wire with the wide-fire ring HG). There are some high boost cars that are using a stainless steel wire with a copper head gasket - but I dont think that is very common. I also know of a local race shop that is now o-ringing blocks on 944S2 club race cars due to premature headgasket failures.

Keep in mind that these applications are full track only, beat the snot out of cars, and my home track is Brainerd Int'l. We have a 1 mile straight away leading into a high speed, full throttle, banked turn 1 and a high speed turn 2. So the 944 Turbos are on full throttle, full boost for a continuous 30-40 seconds, before braking for turn 3. Pretty tough on the cars.

I have heard of the MLS gaskets on rennlist, but have not come across anyone that is using them in the PCA Track/Club Race community (not that they are not used, just have never met anyone who is using them).


Ski,

Do you use a copper wire in both the block and head grooves, or just the block groove? I have not seen both the head and cylinders grooved for o-rings before.

Do you place the wire ends/gaps at any certain location/orientation. A local shop told me to put them facing the exhaust manifold, but it seemed it was more of an application technique than for a strength/reliability reason.