This study evaluated how different tooth preparation heights and luting cements affected the retention of metallic full crowns. Tooth preparations were made on 60 extracted maxillary premolars with occluso-cervical heights of 4.0 or 5.0 mm. The nickel chromium (NiCr) metallic crowns in each group were subdivided randomly into three groups (n = 10); the samples in each group were cemented with either a self-adhesive resin cement, a conventional resin cement, or a zinc phosphate cement. Cementation was performed by applying 5.0 kg pressure in 50% relative humidity. Specimens were stored in 100% humidity at 37 degrees C for seven days, at which time they were subjected to a vertical tensile test with a universal testing machine at 0.5 mm/min. Data (Kgf) were analyzed by two-way ANOVA and Tukey's multiple comparisons tests (alpha = 0.01). There was a significant difference in mean force in the height preparations (P < 0.001) and in tensile strength (P < 0.001) among the resin cements. Regardless of the cement used, 5.0 mm high preparations showed significantly higher mean forces than the 4.0 mm high preparations. The self-adhesive resin cement showed significantly higher mean tensile strength than the conventional resin cement; the zinc phosphate cement displayed the lowest retention values. The self-adhesive resin cement displayed retention rates twice that of the zinc phosphate cement.