I talked to a guy that builds alot of cummins trucks, and seems to know his stuff. He said that he has done 100psi with just studs, and that orings are a bunch of hype. He did say however they do have their place for pulling trucks, drag ect. His thoughts are he'd rather replace a 50$ gasket than push the air/fuel past the rings and wash out a cylinder and spend the 2-3K to rebuild the motor.
Thoughts or coments?

 

He is very incorrect and must have alot of time on his hands.

IF,and that would be the only way,IF his truck is a newer common rail motor,then yes he would be able to get away without o-rings and high boost pressures.You run a 12v/24v much over 50psi and you are asking for problems if your not studded and o-ringed.

If I had to drive my truck around worrying about each time I boosted it to over 50 psi and lifting the head,then I would have left it stock.Your guy must like pulling the head alot if he doesn't think o-rings have a place in a street truck.

Here is a shot of my head from last Fall when I lifted the head and I was o-ringed also.if you look down the left side of the photo,the exhaust side,you will see how bad the gasket was compromised by a bad turbo combination,high timing and excessive rpm.It had blown out along all of the exhaust side of the head and we feel that the head was also not properly torqued down when it was initially done.Over 50psi and it was studded,yet it failed so you can see why we reccomend doing it the right way first........andy

 

I got a question to add to this, at about what psi of boost do i need to start thinking about o ringing and studs?. how about what psi for just studs and no orings? i only push about 35 psi right now with my set up but would like to get some more power later on and just throwin studs at it one at a time would be the easiest way but what psi should i be able to hold with just stock bolts,just studs and stock HG, then studs and orings..?

also to the OP i would think it would take way more cly pressure to blow throught the rings than it would to blow out the oring but i could be wrong..

 

Its hard to say for sure as more than boost pressure comes into play. I would say that to be conservative, anything over about 35 psi and your on borrowed time.

 

o-rings are run on street trucks all the time. the only thing i've seen without O rings was in one of the magazines a guy got the head and block decked so perfectly he just ran studs and a gasket. I don't remember where I saw it and it was a race truck with god knows how much money into the motor.

 

im runnin just studs on a 97 pullin truck i just bought. the previous owner says he has pulled 2 years like that. it gets to about 52 to 53 down the track. idk

 

As Andy will tell you, and as he said in his post. It's not just about the boost pressure, It's about timing and drive pressures as well!

 

timing drive pressure and you guys that run any kind of catalyst like methanol propane or anything else that has a different burn rate than diesel fuel my buddies power stroke only ever makes 32 lbs of boost he ran it at the drag strip with the DP turned all the way up and 50/50 water meth the truck had run for years with that setup minus the water meth he made it about 300 feet from the finish and blew the head gasket on the driverside bank

 

i would not go over 40psi with out studs. i am getting studs and o-rings at the same time. do it right and you wont have to worry about it.

 

when you say "do it right" does that mean a 16 yr old kid better not be messing w/ this stuff? im looking at studding and o-ringing at the same time because i have a twins buildup underway. i plan to wastegate it at 45psi untill i get around to studding and o-ringing it.

P.S my stock bolts are all retorqued to 125 ft lbs