Head gasket-4 liter Mistral engine

I am a strong believer in the fire rings and o ring for sealing the six cylinder engines. I takes a lot more effort to install them correctly but IMHOP the are the best way. Too many different materials and parts to use the one piece gasket.

 

Elliot, ^^^ this is someone you should be listening too on this subject. Eugene had a very long career is a mechanical engineer/manager keeping manufacturing plants running well in the SF Bay Area.
Maseratis, other makes as well became a hobby of his and he's restored many cars quite successfully. He knows the inline 6 cylinder Maserati engine quite well.

Just my 2 cents. I know zip about them.

 

I rebuilt a couple 4 L Maserati inline 6 engines in the late 80s and used the fire rings with no trouble for many years. They were designed that way. The fire rings looked much more robust and should keep the water isolated from the cylinders better than a crimped gasket. the water jacket outer perimeter seal is so think that it will seal perfectly when compressed by the head. Obviously, the liners must be perfectly true across the tops and the head must be flat and new rings must be used so that they can be crushed when the head is torqued. Kyle Flemming in Virginia loaned me torque plates that I used for boring and honing.