Hey guys I just picked up my new truck and drove it 140 miles no problem, then I got to the end of my road and boom there goes a radiator hose. Well I saw oil in the coolent and knew it was the head gasket. Now i have the tough choice of choosing which one to replace it with. The one I have now is a copper gasket, crap so if your not pulling in truck pulls dont bother. Well I read somewere that i can have my copper gasket (which has only 3000 miles on it used again. It said that I can get o-rings and use the gasket again and it will hold up to 75 lbs. of boost.

My other choice would be to use the Marine gasket and studs to hold over 50lbs. This will cost me about 200 less that getting o-rings.

Or I can just put in a Marine gasket but I dont know how much boost that will hold. Any ideas?

I make no more than 50 lbs. but the engine is too new to test out the hx-40 hybrid so I have no idea how much I can make and want to put in a gasket that will hold. Any suggestions would be nice!

Are you 100% sure that it is a headgasket and not an oil cooler problem?

Ditch the copper gasket on a daily driven truck. 0-Ring the head, use a paper/fabric/whatever it is made of, stock type, or marine type gasket.

Install some 12mm head studs, or if you really want to go wild, do the 14mm studs.

Ya the leak is pressurizing the Radiator which caused the hose to blow. There is oil in the radiator and I think a little bit of coolent in the oil. I think I will do the marine gasket and studs. If it is going to only be a little more I'll go for the o-rings, that way I can run as much boost as I want anytime and be fine.

When in doubt, go for the gusto :Thumbup:

Run a factory gasket with 0.105 wires and 12mm studs, that will hold 80psi pretty easily. I would stay away from the marine gasket at your power level, you don't need to drop any compression with the 0.10 or 0.20 gasket. I wondered how the copper gasket would hold up, you could reuse it if you coated both sides with a sealer along with the head and block.

Talked with Scheids, they only do Fire rings. They said Fire rings are the best but they will look over my truck and see any options that i can do. I like the fire rings with new head bolts. Then this summer put in studs by myself when more money comes available. Not too bad on price so i will see what they say and decide on something.

Fire rings need to be used with head studds. Give a few more details o nthe engine,and what your doing with it.When you blew the gasket was the engine fully warmed up and up to temp?I dont know if this had anything to do with it,but you shouldnt be pushing the cummins beyond 10 or so psi of boost until the engine has hit operating temp(180+),or totally stabilized.That is the biggest problem with popping head gaskets on modded trucks,guys get giddy with them with a cold engine,it takes 10-15 minutes to warm up a Cummins,by driving it,sometimes longer,dont get on it until its fully up to temp.if this wasnt the case,and it was up to temp .I would have the block/and head checked for flatness,head checked for cracks,and have it milled if need to be if its out .003 or more,Id get it milled,and run a thicker gasket to keep the valves from getting to close to the pistons.If 50psi is the max your going to run,use a .010 over gasket and ARP studds,retorque a few times,you should be fine. If your plans are too go between 55-65psi(street twins) get the head o ringed,and use the ARP studds.The copper gasket you have now shouldnt have blown if installed properly,at the most it should havw weeped a little oil/coolant.What other mods does the engine have other than copper gasket.

IT was fully warmed up. I drove it 120 miles then had a short stop then 40 more home so it was fully warmed up. Then engine and gasket has only 3k miles on it but the PO installed it so that is probably why it went down hill. All my mods are in my sig. I wouldn't consider it too wild and I plan to keep it in this power level. Maybe just a new set of injectors but that is about it for mods. Scheids is going to strip the head and check it for flatness. If its off they are going to machine it. I think my turbo can only make 55 max boost and I think timing is low so I can go with the studs and .020 over gasket. Thing is I think they only charge $180 more to get fire rings so I might just do that and never have to worry about it again. We will see when I get it down there and see what they say.

For that money I would deffinently fire ring it. That way you could put all the boost that turbo can give to the engine safley. Plus it would hold higher timing.

I had fire rings,never again on a street driven truck.The installation is critical,there is zero room for error,and you cant go back.The installation mistakes were mine,but even so I wouldnt do fire rings again,unless it was a race only truck.I think they are the hot setup for those making 80+psi of boost,but ill keep my o rings now. I would go with studds,and a .020 gasket,what single turbo do you have thats still on its map at 55psi? I hope not an hx40.Good luck gettin er done:Thumbup: .

The only reason i am considering fire rings is because it will only be around $200 more. I like the .020 over and studs, that will hold all I need. I dont need something that hold over 80 lbs just up to 50 lbs max.

John, how quick will you notice the fire-ring mistake? Does it take some time, a cold start, a little too much pressure, a cold hard run...what makes them go south? :shrug:

BossHawg, any kind'a warranty or "agreement" with those fire-rings?

about 2 weeks of driving hitting 60+psi and i started getting a gurgling sound i nthe cab coming thru my heater core.It was #4 cyl leaking.It was my own fault,I was the first to use the tool,and the dowel pin receiver wasnt cut deep enough ,so it set up .004 on the one side,in the back,so you couldnt see it sitting up at all,it was down o nthe dowel,just up that little bit,so i cut #4,5,and 6 too deep on one end too shallow on the other.I ended up starting over with another engine,repairing it was too expensive,and involved.Worst aprt was i was"upgrading" from o rings,which lasted 8 months with tiwns,and N20,with no problems,The gasket blew,so i figured it was time too upgrade.In the process of blowing 2 sets of fire rings in a few months i learned that i wasnt the only one who had made a boo boo,or lost fire rings. I still have a brand new set of 14mm haisley studds,and a fire ring set up sitting on the shelf that i never used.Properly installed,i think that is the setup to have for a full blown hi boost race engine.

If done 100% correctly......nothing going wrong, how long do you think they would last on an "every day" driver.....er, or with dummy driving?LOL

I could only guess,too many variables to put a time,but i would rather take a chance with a wire o ring for a street truck,it cant fail by design,and splitting isnt a big deal it already is split.I know my o ring is going on 2 yrs and 25000 miles,and not a single problem,ive hit 65psi many many times.I was considering pulling the head this summer ,just to check things out,and put a new gasket in,sort of a PM,but im not sure i wanna fix what isnt broken.

Scheids is doing all the work so they know what they are doing and should have a warrenty. I told the guy at the shop that fire rings was over kill for my truck. I realy dont plan on running twins, nos or anything that would require me to get fire rings. I would say an everyday driver should last a long time. If a stock gasket can last 200k miles plus for some truck fire rings should last way more than that. But what I thiink only drag raceers and pullers run fire rings. My buddy has a Haisly built puller and it only runs a thick gasket and i think stock bolts and has hit 60+ boost ( peged the guage and still climbed so maybe 70 or 80 my guess). For me it will all come down to price. Still have to pay taxes and registration.

I installed the fire rings on my brother's 2001, first time pulling a head and I thought it was a rather painless procedure. We had the head milled and the receiver grooves cut into the bottom of the head by a local shop, they were the only complication in the whole process. I would do the fire rings again for the price and peace of mind.

Its a ballance between Money, and do I realy need fire rings. Its only a daily driver and has mild timing and a hx-40 so I would only be at half of what fire rings can hold. But if I want to add NOS or twins down the road I wouldnt have to get the rings done. Its a tough call. They said it would be 1000 for fire rings, then studs add on the price i think. How streetable are fire rings? If they arnt pratical I will go with .020 gasket and studs which should hold all the boost I make now.

Go with studds,and the .020 over.Down the road either way you may need another head gasket,they dont last forever,no matter which route you take.

Its a ballance between Money, and do I realy need fire rings. Its only a daily driver and has mild timing and a hx-40 so I would only be at half of what fire rings can hold. But if I want to add NOS or twins down the road I wouldnt have to get the rings done. Its a tough call. They said it would be 1000 for fire rings, then studs add on the price i think. How streetable are fire rings? If they arnt pratical I will go with .020 gasket and studs which should hold all the boost I make now.

Fire rings are completely streetable, no problems here. If you have the money, get the fire rings, if you don't think you want to spend the money, do just the studs. In my opinion, ring it and don't look back, you don't know where you will be next year.

True, Thanks guys. I will see what Scheids say and their final prices. I am realy not sure on other upgrades I will do in the near future. I have a good amount right now but the BOMBing bug is hard to ignore. Twins sounds interesting :evil: I will keep y'all posted on what I finally decide. The truck will be in the shop monday and they should be done tuesday and pick up on wednesday.

survey says................