but i'm stumped about head gaskets. mainly this one: http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/store...chItemId=29647. really what i'm concerned with is, is this gasket more heavy duty than the budget ones?
i'm in the process of ordering parts for my rebuild now and what i have are a 270HE roller cam and (currently have) TRW forged pistons that will net me about a CR of 8.9:1. that's not bad but i want as thin a gasket as i can get away with to get that number as close to ~9.0 to 9.2:1 as possible.
i thought about going with the copper gaskets but the best compressed thickness is .038-.040.
so this steel gasket has the compressed height i want (or as close to it as i can get) but do i need to worry about this thing holding up? or is this just the puttin' down the road kind?
what other concerns should i have? what suggestions do you guys have?
BTW, cast iron block/heads.

 

If it was me building the engine i'd use the dead soft copper ones more $$ but you cannot go wrong i think--Glenn

 

First of all, let me state that I've never used a thin steel shim gasket on a street engine. All my experience with them has been on racing engines back during the 70's in B Production Corvettes with decked blocks and trued heads. Gaskets this thin don't like warped surfaces.

If you do use a steel shim gasket, be sure to use a spray sealant on both sides of the gasket to evenly distribute sealer across the gasket surface. (Aluminized spray paint always worked well for me, but there are probably better sealers on the market now.) Make sure that your bolt holes in the block have been cleaned out with a thread chaser and dry air. Clean the threads of all your cylinder bolts and use 30 weight oil on those bolts that don't enter the engine's water jacket. Bring the bolts up to specified torque in a series of passes following the tightening sequence specified by Chevy. (I used 5 lb-ft increments after initially torqueing the heads to 15 lb-ft.) After the initial firing sequence, bring the engine fluids (oil & water) up to operating temperature and run the engine for at least 30 minutes. Allow the engine to cool completely, and then re-torque the heads to spec. You should be good to go at that point. Now, for a street engine, you may want to re-check the head bolt torque at regular intervals just to make sure that everything is okay. The interval is up to you, but I try 500 miles first up to 1,500 miles and then maybe go to every other oil change if you're using a 3,000 oil change interval.

Just one work of caution, keep you coolant topped off, and change it frequently unless you are adding some type of corrosion inhibitor to the mix. Thin steel shims don't tolerate overheating very well plus they are prone to rusting out around the water passages if you don't pay attention to the cooling system.

All this said, I think that you would be better served decking the block for increased compression and using a multi-layered steel gasket designed for street/strip useage. Install it, torque it once, and forget about it while you drive your Vette.

 

For what it's worth - I'm using the GM p/n 1010517 gaskets. They are used by GMPP on the ZZ383/425 motor and are working fine on my motor. .028 compressed thickness.

Daffy

 

I installed the FelPro rubber coated hd gasket and it's advertized to be only .015" compressed. Using with iron hds and i unfortunatly boiled over on start-up due to loose rad cap and wrong temp sending unit (PepBoys part ). Gaskets have held though and still worked fine in >100*F+ weather.

I didn't have a fresh "decked" block so i scrubbed the deck clean enough to see all the machine marks in the metal - no black material left from old gasket. Before installing i used Permetex spray sealer on both sides from parts store (NAPA). FelPro instructions say to use sealer also. Even called FelPro and they said there is no right side up to gasket - either side up ok. Also asked Felpro if this steel gasket would work with aluminum hds and the rep said yes. I really like this gasket as it is much tighter diameter than most while only .015" compressed to help compression a tad and reduce hot-pocket area(s) also. Can't verify why they engineered this gasket but FelPro has a great design here for sb Chevys with stock iron heads and stock deck heights.

But i kind'a lost track of your application clutchdust as i thought u were building an aluminum hd V6 but this sounds like its for a iron head V8? Wow! Now a roller cam. Big win at the blackjack tables?

Hope this helps ya.
cardo0