According to Ford standard head bolts are rated to 27 psi boost. What's a good number on the maximum boost with ARP studs installed?

 

Probably not much more. But perhaps the limiting factor will be the head gasket as well. It's not the npboost itself, but the compression stroke of the boost air and addition of fuel that causes the very high compression forces. Somebody with experience may chime in with some real world increased boost experience.

 

Yep, boost is just one part of the equation. With the factory turbo or Powermax you should keep it under 30 psi though.

 

Have to keep an eye on it then, because even on street tune, the boost will come up pretty fast if it downshifts. EGR delete, 4" straight pipe, and air filter upgrade.

 

OPTIONS OPTIONS OPTIONS We have OPTIONS
well someone does.

If the tune is done right it should take into account the current
level of the boost pressure and cut/derate the power. ie less fuel.
If you go over that your going to have to do some of the extreme
mods for keeping the fire in the cylinder and not popping past the
gasket.
Maybe this Ring of Fire thing would work or not

I got that here
ATS | Fire-Ring Head, 6.0L, Ford, Powerstroke*
$1716.75 is a bit of money and you send your old heads.


Sean
Note : I did not know that using the insert image would work for posting a web PDF. Very handy.

 

Talked to a guy last night that had his 6.0 reworked in a shop over around Atlanta. From what he was telling me they did something very similiar to this ATS Fire Ring, but they did the machining in house. All told he claims it cost him about $6K.

 

I did more reading on the fire ring and it seems to not be a good longterm
operation item do to breakage of the rings. It's more go to the race/pull,
win and take it home and rebuild it. (well not that bad I hope) But not
really a good longterm operation on the street option.

Sean

 

1/4 mile folks o ring heads, and i'm trying to figure out what
the difference is between that, and the "fire ring".

seems to be the same thing, a steel crush ring. used on motors
that are taken apart four times a mile....

sometimes that might be an appropriate 6.0 description....

nevermind.....

edit:

googled, and found this....

Fire Ring Versus O-Ring

We frequently get asked the question, what is the difference between O-Ringing or Fire-Ringing my cylinder head.

Here is our best explanation:
O-Ringing:
O-Ringing is cutting or machining a narrow circular groove in your cylinder head surface, then tapping or pressing
in a stainless steel wire. The stainless wire protrudes 8-12 thousandths from the surface of the head. When installed
on the block, this wire lines up with the steel ring in the head gasket. After torquing your cylinder head down, this
wire puts additional pressure on the steel ring, allowing for a better head-to-block combustion seal. These setups
work very well for mild builds up to 750HP, with 70PSI or less boost.

Fire Ringing:
Fire ringing is cutting or machining a circular groove in your cylinder head OR block surface, or sometimes both
surfaces. The groove is generally machined in the head in most street uses.
Once the groove is cut, a circular mild steel ring is set on the block in the grooves that were cut. In the case of
having the head cut, we generally glue the rings to the head to ensure proper positioning with the cylinder when
you install the cylinder head. With fire ringing, the stock steel fire ring in the Cummins gasket is removed and
instead replaced with the mild steel "fire rings". This allows for a stronger seal than o-ringing. When the head is
torqued, the steel rings will crush, allowing a strong seal.
This application will hold upwards of 100PSI of boost when using the correct fasteners. When you machine both
the head and block, about half the recommended machining depth is used on the head and block, this way, the r
ings are set in both the head and the block with even less chance of them shifting when re-installing the head.

On most of our high performance competition builds, we only fire ring t

 

I had Bill at Mountain High Performance o-ring my heads, installed his big valve kit and harden seats. I had this done 15k ago and not a sign of pressurizing the cooling system. I would recommend it if using the OEM gaskets. The copper head gaskets on my race car with a o-ringed block is a drip, after it sits a while even after the re-torque .