Diesel Fire Ring ?

A lot of the competition diesel engines use "fire rings" to seal the combustion pressure. A groove is cut in both the head and the block, and a continuous solid (or hollow) ring is captured and squished between the two grooves.

Was wondering if anyyone has tried this in a blown meth or nitro deal, instead of the normal double groove with small wire o-ring and soft copper gasket? Do you see a benefit or a drawback to trying this approach?

In a non water application a person could delete the copper gasket and its associated thickness/volume. Of course a few little things might have to be fiddled with in terms of clearance and compression.

Thanks.

 

The AJ heads on the Top Fuel car I've been around has had the "fire rings" in it for 7-8 years now ?

Didn't know they were a Diesel application to begin with ?

 

Fire Rings

All of my AJ2 fuel heads have fire dams. These fire dams take the place of the standard wire and groove. The fire dams are installed in deeper grooves in the head than standard wire and protude about the same amount as the standard wire would on regular cut grooves. I have never had a problem with them sealing. I still use copper head gaskets on my 526 blown alcohol hemi with the AJ2 fuel heads, dry, of course. The fire dams wont seal without gaskets.

 

Hoops

The hoops can be installed by AJPE on any of there heads, not sure about others. It is worth the

cost for the upgrade, just my opinion.

 

Hmmm..... That's interesting. Are the AJ rings solid or hollow? Can they be used without a copper gasket (ie: the ring is captured directly by grooves in the head and the top of the sleeve)?

Is the cut in the top of the sleeve sort of like a groove which which would protect the inner side of the ring from direct exposure to the chamber heat, or is it more like an "L-shape" facing into the chamber which would leave the inner portion of the ring directly exposed?

 

Fire Dams

My fire dams appear to be solid and are flat on the sides, not L shaped. You need to use gaskets to seal the fire dam to the cylinder sleeve. Standard groove in sleeve top so you can use either style of o-ring or fire dam. Not much difference in looking at the head. Hard to tell fire dams from steel o-ring except o-rings have a joint visable.
Call AJ directly. They can answer all your questions better than I can.

 

I'll call them. Tried today but everyone was tied up. If you have a camera can you shoot me any pics of yours? Thanks.

 

Hollow, gas filled I hear ?