My own experience with my truck, a daily driver 500ish RWHP 12-valve 5x14, s362, benched 160 pump, etc:
Blew stock gasket, replaced with gasket and ARP 2000 studs. Blew that one in less than a year. Blew that one and replaced with bolts snd another gasket, using super secret voodoo torque procedure from 2 top drag racers of the day who are still well respected here. blew that one. Replaced again, back to studs, trying another cold/hot retorque procedure. This was over about a 18 month period.
Had new head fire ringed by reputable well known national shop, then blew that gasket twice with 12mm studs (ARP 2000) within a few months.
Installed another gasket and fire ring set #3, and machined block and heads for 14mm studs. Finally, over 7 years later, I lifted it again with 14mm H-11 studs.
Things I learned:
1). On my truck, 12mm ARP 2000 studs were not enough to crush the fire rings. I actually talked to them yesterday and they said the newer custom age stuff would work (it was not out when I did mine).
2) no one's special retorque procedure with bolts or studs fixed my problem, and I got good advice from guys that win with their trucks *shrug*.
3) you are supposed to retorque fire rings regularly as stated above. I agree, but because I was lazy, I never did even once and it lasted for years. Maybe I got lucky?
4) ARP says they don't recommend retorques, but readily admit they have little to no knowledge on fire rings - just fasteners with normal gaskets. They also say that the newer custom aged material is much more corrosion resistant (see below for why you care)
5) what ultimately killed mine was corrosion. Some of the H-11 studs looked pitted pretty bad when I pulled it apart - one had even split in half and was just sitting broken in the hole... The question of the day is how moisture got in there to corrode it, but again, 7 years is a long time according to everyone I talked to, for running a setup like mine with basically no effort/issues.
What I took away from my experience was basically fire rings are the ultimate, but (intentionally) more maintenance intensive as well. If I was building my truck today, using it as I do with similar goals (700-800 hp, Dyno, daily driver, and occasional off road/sand dime climbing), I would NOT fire ring it or put bigger studs in. I would use ARPs custom age 12mm stuff with a good MLS gasket, or o-rings. These choices were not available to 12 valve guys 7-8 years ago.
I will put mine back together again and use better studs, but I would leave fire rings to track only stuff. They are a PITA to install right, more maintenance intensive because of intolerance for heat cycles, and can be very expense when you add up the machine work, very expensive studs (if you need 14s) and expensive gaskets and rings.
Just my experience. Hope my lengthy review will help some of you guys trying to decide. Gasket technology and fasteners have come a long ways in 10 years.
