I've done a bunch of searching already.

I'll have my ITR back soon from the shop doing the turbo, and I'm looking into ways to get more reliable power. My mechanic suggested a thicker head gasket and a block gaurd. He said the gaurd is to keep the cylander walls from moving at high RPM, enabling me to run more boost safely.

All the research I've done here on HT tells me the gaurd only protects againsed detonation. I don't understand how it does this. Please school me.

And I know, I should just get sleaves. But a gaurd and a HG are good solutions in the meantime, right?

 

Your mechanic was right, and the BG has nothing to do with detonation... well, MAYBE it holds the sleeve together under detonation a little better... but that's another issue. Be careful with blockguards, the old ones especially- They can cause cooling problems!

Many run them w/o a hitch, I might add.

 

Good fuel management and tuning is the key. You should worry about that before you buy anything else. I myself would never run a block guard. If I really needed something for a little extra protection and I couldn't afford sleeves I would post the block.

 

bump