From
http://www.rv8r.co.uk/index.html
The flange at the top is quite apparent. What is less noticeable is the cunning little seal at the bottom which effectively gives the liner all the attributes of a wet liner, allowing no route for sump pressure to go up, nor water to find its way down. This works in tandem with the flange.
The flanged liner has a number of benefits when compared to the original. It can be appreciated that it is much more positively located. The flange is a press fit into the rebate machined into the head by Turner Engineering and provides a much better seal. Pressurised cooling fluid is effectively stopped from finding its way into the combustion chamber as the edge of the flange is covered by the headgasket so stopping any leakage.
When the head is bolted down it acts upon the flange, forcing it into its seat and, of course, creating the seal. And, because of the way it is located there is no chance of the liner slipping.
The new liner can be made of ductile cast iron which is much stronger than the normal spun cast iron, so making it more suitable for high performance engines.
So far so good and if that was all there was to it, it would be satisfactory. However, there is more.
Near the bottom of the liner, and on the outside, is a seal. This effectively changes the RV8 into a wet liner engine so that even if there is a coolant leak through a crack or hole in the bore behind the liner it cannot go anywhere else. Further, there is no possibility of the gasses from the combustion finding their way into the cooling system.

