queston for racer ' compression

[speedracer]

At about what cranking compression do you recommend that heads be O ringed', the pocket chamber in queston should put compression in the 180 190 range im told, do you agree.I was under the impression when you get in these kind of numbers that head gaskets could fail.Cost is also a factor,seems like i got the heads off more than on and i think a gasket is about 25 bucks a pop. Thanks in advance for your reply.

[mercrazy]

can i cut old 2.5 and 2.4 heads to install o-rings?
is it worth the trouble for better reliability?
how much do the o-rings cost?
what are the slot dimensions?
do the slots have a square or round bottom?
how much will this raise my compression?

[T-REX]

I think it iz up to U if you want to O-ring or not @ 180 or 190#'s...O-rings are cheaper after tha head work iz complete...I run well over 200#'s and use Head Gaskets, but do have sum leaking from time to time...I will go to O-rings, but time wuz a factor for me and didn't have time to cut the heads...If you remove tha heads quite often, O-rings are tha ticket...Cutting your heads for O-rings are not a problem for a good machinest, Jus make sure he cuts for the thickness of tha head gasket(around .035)...I havent tryed tha O-ring trip yet, but Chris Ray uses O-rings and he has BUNCHES of compression, and he used teflon rings...I can tell ya more about them shortly, cuz I am building sum heads fer tha 2.0...REX:cool:

[racer]

180 is ok for gaskets after that o-rings are better. Remember good o-rings for your application are around $5.00 each so a little cheaper down the road.