Piston ring question

[cmichael818]

In replacing the head on my CA18ET, I noticed that I don't have any piston rings for it. They weren't in the old head either. Is there a place I can buy them that is reputable and reliable

[cmichael818]

Nevermind, brainfart. For some reason for a second I though my rings sat on top of the piston. Someone delete this thread, please

[Cajun1guy]

LOL, don't you hate when that happens.  But you do need a good head gasket, I would highly recommend a Cometic metal head gasket rather than the standard FelPro composition. It will not blow if properly installed.
BTW, anyone know what thickness would be the best for a CA18ET when you are boosting to 12-15 psi? I would think you would want a thicker gasket, Cometic has many choices.

[cmichael818]

When my FelPro blows I'll go with a higher end gasket. I would have bought a better one, but the FelPro came with the car and all the parts.

[Jeremy]

i think i used the med thickness one that was not an extra charge, also my local shop said i should also spray it on both sides with copper spray.  i run 14 or so psi daily on a built motor. if you are going crazy boost i would say that you would want a thicker gasket not so thick if you are going to stay conservative boost under 10psi or so

[Basic]

KA-T guys use felpro all the time and it's fine up to a certain point. I've seen 400hp KA-t using felpro head gaskets. The cometic require both the head AND the block to be perfectly flat and clean AND machined to the correct roughness, something some machine shops have an issue with. I've seen more people have to pull the head again due to a poor install on the cometic than I have seen using a felpro.

[Cajun1guy]

I could see that with an all metal gasket, but they now have a built in seal so no special spray on stuff or other wiz-bang things need to be done. I used an all metal one and have had an oil seep for a long time now, I plan to replace it with the newer style in the near future when the time and money graphs sync.