Wire Ringing the Block
Turbo Mini Forums

Back around the turn of the centry I came across a Mini turbo with wire rings fitted to the block to help prevent head gasket failure. Since then I've not come across any other A series turbos which had been ringed. The theory behind them makes sense, but I've not heard of people doing it. So is the general consensious that they're not worth bothering with?

I'm slowly getting round to building my engine and I'm trying to identify all the machining task I may or may not need to do.

the wire rings are actually in the head gasket, you need mods to the block that any good engineers can do

only downside is the headgaskets are £75

almsost everyone on here runs the BK450 gasket, seems to hold up ok. The only person that has a wire rung block that I have heard of is Tom Fenton, I think everyone will agree that as the BK450 is about £12 ?? and the special gasket for a rung block is about £60 ?? the 450 is the best bet.

Bah wolfie beat me to it

Edited by Joe C on 31st Jul, 2006.

Are you talking about a thin (0.8mm or so) groove that is cut into the block, into which a wire is tapped into place, leaving the top surface of the wire standing proud of the block - OR - the large groove machined for the expensive GrpA head gasket?

Yes, as Dave (I think) is getting at, there are two different avenues here.

Wire ringing (also known as Wills Ringing) uses a thin piece of wire set into a groove.

The Grp A head gasket has a double reinforced fire ring which is formed when the gasket is made, and requires a slight "counterbore" (for want of a better description) for the double fire ring to sit into.

I went down this route long before I had ever met anyone else with a turbo'd mini let alone discovered internet forums, as I believed it to be the best and strongest head gasket setup available.
As it turns out, the standard BK450 gasket is more than adequate, and most folks don't have any issues with it. I must point out that once the block is machined for the GrpA gasket then that is the only one which can be used.

The Grp A head gaskets are I believe £80, I recently bought a NOS one off Ebay for £30 plus post, which was I thought a bargain. However compared to £8 or so for a standard gasket and it isn't such a bargain.

In this pic if you look carefully you can see the machined recess for the group A gasket.

http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/tech...askets_upgrade/

talking about gaskets, the way i have had my engine block off set bored to 73.5mm, the
BK 450 was over shadowing the bores slightley

so i am going to use a AF 460 this gasket does not over shadow the bores

any thoughts on the gasket gents ????

I've no experience of that gasket Ben.
Only ever used the BK450.

That said - It might be worth trying a few random 450's as there is definately a slight deviation amongst them...

mini sprocket, i gave my machinist explicit instructions to offset bore slightley diffrent to the Norm!

i wanted a shade more leaving in the middle and i got 3.5mm centre bores and 3.15mm the two outer!

i think your over hang should hold in there, but.... any det will take this out sooner than no overhang

i have included the two extra studs in the block as well as this IMHO does help somewhat on a "High Boosted" motor

Dave, i will have a troll round some parts suppliers and see if i can come up trumps buddy

fancy head gaskets are imo a waste of money!!

i use the Payen AF470 and 9 studs and never have a problem. the only times i had a problem it was due to detonation/pinking

i run up to 17 or 18psi of boost, thrash the living crap out of it, and still dont need these expensive over engineering modifications.

as they say, at the end of the day its up to you. but i would save the money and spend it on something that is actualy known to fail

I think there is very little material in the block to have the Wills ring grooves properly machined so it is basically a waste of time. As for group A gasket, expensive and limits the block to one type of gasket like already mentioned. GroupA gasket is also limited to +40 oversize, possibly +60. My engine is 1380 so it is an impossible option. Having said that, I have only used factory turbo gaskets, no problems there. I believe they are NLA so BK something is the current choice.

IMO if the head and block faces are clean and straight/leval a BK450 takes alot of beating.

I regularly run 22psi on a 1312cc 9 stud set up with an 8:1 CR.

I have only ever had headgasket problems when it has been a head or block warpage.

JF.