O-Ringing 7 MGTE Block

[landspeedrich]

I looked a little bit,but could'nt fine any chatter about it.I'm planning on cutting a receiver groove around each bore for a stainless wire.The groove will be .041 wide and .020 deep.I'll use a .041 stainless wire with the ends butting up.The groove will be about .050 to .075 outside of the bore,depending whose HG I use.
I work at Flatout Racing Gaskets,and think maybe have a copper head gasket water jetted with a softer copper for better sealing with the o-ring groove.Even though I've had the block and head resurfaced,not sure if it's smooth enough for a steel HG.I hope to run 20-28 lbs. of boost on E85 on the street.Any thoughts on my plans?Negative or positive?

 

[IJ.]

It's been tried a few times and due to the close bore spacing really needs to be a figure 8 groove around pairs of cylinders.

 

[jdub]

The small space between the cylinders is going to be the problem.

 

[4U2QUIK]

It's been tried a few times and due to the close bore spacing really needs to be a figure 8 groove around pairs of cylinders.

so that the two intersect and the rings press aginst each other?

 

[IJ.]

Yep 1 wire.

 

[4U2QUIK]

interesting!

 

[IJ.]

Can't remember who it was but one of the guys here has done it on a 7M.

Personally I wouldn't bother as the more traditional solutions work well if done correctly and in the past on o-ring/copper HG engines I've had sealing issues with coolant and oil passages.

 

[tweak666]

<-- o-ringed 7M here

 

[landspeedrich]

<-- o-ringed 7M here

Tweek 666
Did you think it was worth while?What type of gasket did you use?How much boost do you run?

 

[shaeff]

So long as you properly machine everything to spec, a MLS gasket should work just fine...

Plenty of guys making big power with the aforementioned.

 

[tweak666]

in retrospect, it was overkill, but the original plan was to build the engine for quarter mile use on a modest budget. My power goals now are alot lower now, around 500hp, so a standard MLS gasket would've been fine. My father did the o-ringing, he's been doing it for a while on a bunch of different engines, and hasn't had a problem yet, but this is the first 7m he did, so we will see what happens. He's an engineer so I trust his judgement.
The gasket is an sce copper. I've only pushed maybe 15psi, at most, but drive it at like 8psi till i get the standalone on it.

 

[shaeff]

^ Boost pressure means nothing if we don't know what turbo you're running.

 

[tweak666]

oops, my bad. stock ct right now, have a complete gt35r setup waiting to go on after the standalone

 

[Doward]

Pics of the o-ringing?

 

[4U2QUIK]

I'd be interested in pics also. The only reason why i find this interesting is that I know a couple of people with o-ringed v-8's and they're running 60psi though a massive supercharger setup.

 

[tweak666]

no pics unfortunately

 

[Zumtizzle]

.

 

[figgie]

as tweak noted. Copper hg is needed which makes the hg a throw away part as the copper is there for the softness, which also happens to have a low melting point which makes it wear away after each run.

 

[landspeedrich]

My intent to use copper was because of it's sealing capabilities and is available in multiple hardnesses,and works well with o-ringing.Plus the cost is reasonable compared to MLS Hg.Copper melts at 1985 deg. Fah.And at least with the Flatout copper head gaskets,they hold up very well.In top alcohol cars they may only last a run,but are also used in the tune (compression) for the next run.
My block will get grooved in the next week,I'll try posting some pics and costs involved for anyone interested.Happy Thanksgiving Boys!! Rich :icon_surp

 

[shaeff]

^ Alcohol also burns much cooler than gasoline.