Fire-rings are more suited towards racing/pulling. They don't have the greatest track record for Daily Drivers, O-rings and studs are needed if you going above 45 PSI in the boost department and they tolerate daily driving.
Use a Cummins head gasket, they are good for 90% of the applications.
In the end it all depends on how high you want to go with the HP. :nos:
I've been running 40-50psi for the last 8 years, 4 of those with no studs, all on the stock headgasket with no issues at all. Stock headgasket has over 190k on it with no leakage. Just don't go WOT until the t-stat has opened up and you'll be fine between 40-50psi.
I would just put headstuds in and not worry about a gasket. Your stock one should be fine as long as its not leaking yet. Take one bolt out at a time and put new stud in and torque it down. Follow cummins torque sequence.
Thank you broke down
First of all i want to say that firerings are just fine for daily driving. I have 3 years on mine and have run up to 100 lbs boost and 2000 degrees. Not one single issue here. Im not a fan of orings cause i think it is a chincy waste of time and money but i do know guys thatrun them and dont have any problems so i wont actually say they are bad.
As far as a hg, I reccomend the .090 marine hg to go with the 12mm studs. We run it on our 97 12v with 22-27 degrees timing, 5x18 injectors, silver 66 and 4500+ rpms. Two years of hard service. Im talking get in start it up andput it to the floor. The motor has 300,000 miles and he was trying to see how much it would take.For a hg that we thought would be a tempory, has been well worth the money.