A Hillman Imp Wills Ringed cylinder Head

This may well be the only one in South Africa,its certainally the first one I have had my hands on,it is the 180 series Sport  casting and  was imported recently by my good friend Eric,who was building a 998cc cylinder block,plans changed and we bought that off  him to use as the basis for a customers fast road/sprint car.

The Wills Rings (black) replace the normall gasket area around the edge of the cylinder bore,known on Imp engines to fail when under stress in competiton,the rings are metal tubes and gas filled,they are held in place in a groove 60 thou,deep in the face of the cylinder head,the water in the block is then controled by the blue paper gasket.