Alright... So I have Patriot ported 317 heads on my car that were originally o-ring with stainless wire for use with copper head gasket. Had issues pushing water and I want to go to a MLS LS9 gasket. The problem is what to do with the groove... Called a few local machine shops got a few answers.

1. Said he didn't know what to do and would be afraid to weld and re-machine because it would weaken the head.
2. Said weld it up and machine.
3. Said mill it down to get the grooves out... I'm pretty against that because these heads aren't super thick to begin with.
4. Something I've seen talked about with the import crowd a lot is running a copper oring in the groove and smashing that into the MLS gasket.
5. Running nothing at all and just letting the grooves stay empty.

Anything else? What do you guys think?
Only really making ~700 RWHP max. 10 PSI of boost and pretty low compression.

 

What about selling them and buying another set of ported 317s? Seems like the easiest route and least amount of worry about strength and sealing.

 

I've done the copper wire on mls gaskets on B series hondas running a lot of pressure with no issues.

Go that route.

 

Any rules for the size of the wire vs the groove?