O-ringed Block/gasket

[NosLaser]

Hey all..I've ben pretty quiet lately..much more than just my car have been on my mind lately..but anyways.. The beast is gonna be alive again in a projected @ 2 months, however not quite as wild as I wanted it due to money situation. Anyways, to the root of my question. I am considering O-ringing the block and have gotten mixed opinions from several different shops. My problem before was the head lifting off the block and pressurizing the coolant, and blowing my radiators to smitherenes. I'm having the block and the head decked, and was going to use an O-ring. My question is what head gasket to use. Has anyone had good luck with an O-ringed block, and which head gasket did you use? Any other suggestions to keep my head where it belongs?? Here is the engine combo I will be using:
Block bored .020 over with ceramic coated/balanced 95 pistons
Big rods balanced and polished
Balanced/polished crank
Align honed block
ported head with stainless valves and web cams
Block/Head decked
Any suggestions on this matter will be appreciated. Thank you.

[PartyBoy]

I was asking the same question a few months ago for my car which is now running. I have copper o-rings using the steel mitubishi gasket and so far it is working great. Some shops say you need to use the composite gasket becouse the o-rings with press into it and others say the metal will do fine to(it has rubber stopper material to sink into). You are just increasing the pressure around the cylinders so when the head heats the o-rings expand and increase the seal around the cylenders. Just use arp head studs and be ready to replace more than a head gasket if you start to detonate badly becouse if properly done the o-rings with hold all the pressure .

[gsxalex]

My last motor was O-ringed and i had the standard headgasket, which was recomended to me by Tym @ Buschur.
Well i ended up blowing that motor do to detonation @ 20 psi of 14b boost and a very lean condition. Anyways The reason my motor was blown was because the cramic insulation of one of the spark plugs cracked off and scored up my clinder wall and did some other minor damage as well, in other words if it werent for the crappy denso plug letting go my motor would have been able to withstand the detonation. All four of my plugs had the ground arm or whatever you want to call it burned/melted pretty badly.

Well my head gasket was toast as well. Actually that is why i decided to pop the head off. Ironically right afer the deadly run i was tapping my manifold for an egt only to find coolant spraying out at me. It looked like the gasket may have leaked between the cylinders a bit, but the real damage was an area where the composite material was... well.. blown.

I wanted to go with the metal head gasket with the rebuilt motor, however the cost of the rebuild killed me and i couldnt afford to have the block decked and the added cost of the metal headgasket.

Im not sure which is the better way to go, just thought i'd share my story.

[Jallen]

Im thinking about doing this...but my machine shop needs some info on it...is there a FAQ? or is there someone that i can talk to about this procedure? thanks

jallen