Gasket fire rings?

[Anonymous-0]

I have read of gasket fire rings. Apearently they help seal the head gasket better around the piston area. Does anyone know about these things? Thanks Stan

 

[dieselpaul]

I believe all gas/diesel engines have a so-called 'fire ring'. this is nothing but the metal crimped onto softer head gsk, in such a way as to surround the cyl. where the 'fire' is. on overheated gas engines, the crimped part can pull loose from the rest of gsk, [it's gotta go into combustion chamber]--''sucked the fire ring'' running engine after that will burn metal crimp--it's now inside the chamber instead of tightly pressed around--now fire will get to softer non-metal material, will burn out very quick. my ref. to 'fire ring' on detroit diesel is differant than most in the fact that the ring is all by itself-it fits on top of each cylinder, it isn't crimped to anything. the block is machined to accept rubber rings to seal water/oil ports,head outer edge, so a head set is a bunch of pieces, instead of a head gsk. that you are used to. well, thats my idea of a fire ring. keeps the fire inside the combustion chamber.

 

[dieselpaul]

fire rings-again hi-perf. engines can have machine work done to install this ring around each cyl. when stock gsk. cannot hold.

 

[buickanddeere]

That is known as"O"-ringing the block or head.
The head or block is machined with a groove to accept a length of stainless steel wire.Then an ordinary or solid copper head gasket is installed. The "O"-ring grips the gasket and prevents pressure from moving it. The "O"-ring is never exposed to combustion chamber gases/flame/direct heat.
A "fire ring" is exposed directly to combustion chamber gases/flame/direct heat.

 

[Mark - IN.]

O-ringing the deck surfaces between the block and heads give a better clamping affect because the grooves cut to hold the O-ring in place in higher compression applications, such as turbo charging. There was a guy whose name I won't mention during the late '70's whom I suggested that to going into the Indy time trials, before the Indy time trials. He was one of the first to run a "stock block" as they referred to his small block chevy, even saying it was out of a school bus, which it really wasn't. There were some conditions that sent up a red flag to O-ring the cylinders. When it came time for the time trials he did ok for the first couple of laps...and a head gasket let go, and he/they didn't qualify. In the garage area afterwards I walked over and asked, "Did you O-ring the cylinders", which I suspected they had not. He/they were pretty mad and we'll let that just go at that, other than to say they had not. It was a fairly new or little known or thought of technology at the time and still, O-ringing the cylinders is a good idea when dealing with higher compressions at least. Who knows, these days with technologies being what they are, they may just use some space age stuff out of an spray can that does they same for much cheaper. I doubt it, but give kids a computer loaded with cad and they'll design a space shuttle out of plastic and paper, and it'll probably blast off and fly.

 

[Mark - IN.]

In all of my years here, that's the first time I've seen you misspell your nick name. How'd you manage that?

 

[Anonymous-0]

I can't use the 37 chief name because I had a computor problem and lost all my sign in names. I need to change the name when I try to post something, or it will come back saying that name is already taken.I don't know how to get it back. Stan

 

[Anonymous-0]

At the engine OEM where I worked, everyone called the narrow metal "rings" encompassing the gasket edge around the cylinder bores, fire rings. We interfaced with several gasket OEMs so I'm confident the term is correctly used.

 

[Mark - IN.]

Maybe can Email Kim, and she’ll work with you to recover your password or fix it. After I posted originally, I got to looking and said "That aint Stan, its someone posing as Stan that is likely to say or do something down the road and get Stan in trouble". Ok, so long as its you. I know that passwords here are case sensitive, meaning if your password is like "STAN....." you can't type in "stan.....". It happened to me years back. Remember Mark from Texas? Used to go by TXBLU when he had a Ford, but then went by TXGRN after he got a 4320 Deere? Was a good guy, but something happened and some guys hen pecked and shooed him out of here. So, for awhile I quit coming back too. Figured I didn't want to have to apply or test to be part of a coffee clutch club or risk being a cast out outsider. Anyway, I quit for awhile, but when I decided to give 'er another try, I couldn't post because "Mark - IN." was reserved and I couldn't log in trying any password that thought it might be. Then for the heck of it, I tried case sensitive (capitolizing) letters here and there...and now I can join in from time to time.

Anyway Stan, you gotta get that fixed because you can't go running around with a bad haircut...its unbecoming of you. Grin.

 

[buickanddeere]

Looks like firerings are either what Detroit diesel used on the two strokes. Or the edge of a one piece factory head gasket that is exposed to flame.