New Head Gaskets for Pontiacs
 

We have in production a new sealing system for Pontiac race motors.

Marty Palbykin designed a way to seal his motor back in the 90's to run in the Six's with this system, but no one could build it for production until now.

I will get Marty to reply on this post and explain how it works and his experiences with it.

This is for a dry deck block only. It is a 99 percent no leak sealing system. It will not burn thru and are reusable. These have been tested by Marty and others over the years. The cost is $340.00 per set.

The block has a counter bore around the cylinders to accept this sealing ring made out of engineered material for High Heat applications.

This ring will lifts with the head and still seals under the most extreme cases of added power systems.

The more pressure you create the more is seals.

This is the future of head gasket technology. No more burn out gaskets.


The next generation IA II blocks can come with this option machined in the decks.

"No more burned out head gaskets." You gonna guarantee that?

To you only Scott if you every build a car again. Ha ha.

I thought the rings expand not lift, I talked to Marty about them decades ago.....good idea!!


GTO George

These rings are not just a ring. They are engineered and have features built into the ring that grip the iron and Aluminum head. They have a top and bottom. It took us a year to get this designed so it even could be machined.

Marty will respond to this thread in depth today to tomorrow.

Just think you order your block with this sealing option and your done. The block is dry decked from the factory. So no other machine shop work need to the deck surface.

Actually sounds good!


GTO George

Great news for Pontiac people with high cylinder pressure.
There are several Pontiacs using this system now.

Some of the advantages are you may use any head you like since there is no machine work on the head.

The higher the cylinder pressure the better the seal.

At the time I was running 11.0 comp ratio and 36 psi of boost never had a ring failure.

If anyone would like to talk with me about this is my personal number.
520-444-0342

Marty Palbykin

This was tested on a Ford Pinto motor 4 cylinder with a blower and made 1100 Hp. No failures.

It was tested on a Ford Fe motor for a while too.

Every motor that it was on had no failure per Marty.

This looks like a good deal and something that's been needed for a long time for Pontiacs. Assuming it works, it's a whole lot cheaper and easier than what we had to go through to seal my cylinders (dry deck, O-rings, copper gaskets).

Can an existing IAII block be retrofitted easily?

Jim

Yes very easily done. When you purchase the set you get machine instructions to modify the block.

We have the ones for 4.350 bores in stock.

Hi Bob. Will this work with your aluminum blocks?

Yes sir. Sure will. Can cut it right into the top of the sleeve.

There is/was a company over here in the UK that used to make nitrogen filled o rings to do a similar job, a groove had to be machined into the block or head,and the hotter the o ring got ,the more the nitrogen expanded and pushed the ring into contact with the head and block surfaces. Wills Rings they were called, they were used a fair bit on the all ali Hillman Imp engines (Coventry Climax design) as these had a reputation for losing head gaskets.
I initially tried to get a set made for my turbo combo but the company were not interested in making a one off custom set and their website was a nightmare to navigate when looking for a suitable size.
Rob,are your new rings gas filled or solid?

Our rings are solid rings.

But they are designed to flex up. When the head torqued is applied to them they come under compression. When compression for the piston and gas exploding the ring will expand and follow the head when it lifts. There is a lot going on in a cylinder. Think of the chamber as a balloon. The aluminum roof is moving up and out. The heat it making the aluminum soft and it is flexing. It is small but the surface is in motion.

Are the machining instructions a secret or is there a link to them, the price for the rings seems good, wondering what the machining would cost.

Not sure the size of the o-ring in the gasket but iske makes a tool to cut grooves in the block for copper o- rings... Its about $350.. Do it yourself and the cost is minimal...

The copper o- rings work by forcing the combustion gases (trying to leak out of the cylinders) to take a "round-about" path to leak into either the air or into a different cylinder. With a ring on each cylinder, typically there is no communication path between cylinders unless the copper o- rings fail.

Someone in this topic mentioned gas (nitrogen) rings for sealing.
We use the gas rings, at work, for a lot of our engine testing prior to designing the final head gaskets for the new engine. The gas rings (if the groove is machined correctly) will allow the ring to seal the head even if the head moves upward several thousands of an inch. But if you make a mistake in the tune-up you can hurt the rings and they are expensive to purchase. Marty and I tried one set of gas rings, which I got from Don Vesco (famous Bonneville Racer), before Marty went to His and Tom Earhart's solid ring design. As Marty said, it has never failed like the previous gas ring did.

So I wish everyone good luck with this product, which has a long time line vs the current new posts.

Tom V.

The Gas Rings are about the same cost as the Isky tool to get the grooves in the block/head. But the copper material is dirt cheap once the grooves are machined in the parts.

There is no tool needed.

This is not a copper ring system.

The machine instruction come with the sealing rings.

The machine work required is very simple by design.
I did mine with a boring bar cut off tool.
This is not a fussy install by any means.

Marty

Is this a dry deck gasket only?