head gasket concern (steel shim)

ok...i am ready to start reassembly of the top end, and noticed a difference in the steel shim head gaskets.
the old ones have a rectangular box at each water passage, of which only about 1/3 of the area passes water, due to the alignment of the holes.
The new gaskets only have a small slot, about 1/3 the size of the holes in the old gasket. i know these are engineered by the mopar gods, but will the decrease in size to 1/3 the previous opening size not cause any problems??

also....i was wondering if there's anything else i need to do before bolting down the heads. the deck was wet from coolant and oil, so i just wiped it off with a rag, and wiped the heads too. looks to me like it's ready......

Not sure about the water passages but I coated mine with copper spray before installing them.

Let me see if I have this right
You now have a 1/3 of the 1/3 of the original size water passage ? That is somewhere around 11% of the original sized passage ...don't sound right to me

hmmm...wonder if i should spray mine....the old ones were bare and there were no problems, so i guess i can just install these without coating them....

and yes, it looks like about 11% of the opening is uncovered....

the block has the dumbell shaped holes, and the heads have single round holes...the head holes line up with one end of each dumbell shape on the block.
the old gaskets have a rectangular opening that is centered over the dumbell hole, so about 1/3 of each rectangular hole in the gasket is used to pass coolant, since the heads only have the round holes.......but, like i said, the new gaskets only have a slot, about 1/3 the height of the rectangle, and is the same width as the rectangle....

lemme go see if i can get a pic....

When I replaced my head gaskets the water ports were round, other than that everything was the same... Like outlaw said something dont sound right.

ok....just looked at it some more....
the holes aren't going to affect flow any because there are the big holes at the front and back that are for the main part of the coolant flow....i guess the ones along the deck are just for air escape from the block and/or slight flow blending....

oh...and in case anyone didn't know, this is on a 400

I'd put the copper coat on - cheap insurance.
I just put my new heads on using the Cometic MLS gaskets - real nice.

Old school was to use aluminum paint to seal the shim gaskets.

I do hope you meant you "wiped them clean with a rag and some kind of solvent"..not just teh rag..They wont seal well with oil and/or antifreeze on them. They may hold compression, but the fluids will find thier way out over time.

no...just a rag and compressed air....

hmm...maybe the heads should come back off...the bolts are only hand-snugged right now...

fiber gaskets tend to soak up crud on the surfaces..steel sandwiched between iron tedns to let fluids seap out. If you've ever had a seaping leak around oil pans, timing covers, or heads, that's why..the surfaces MUST be free of all grease, oil and contaminents for any gasket to work properly, even more important when using silicone, and fingerprints count too.
On a side note, using too much oil to lube the head bolts before torqing will also put oil on the gasket surfaces when they are run into the holes..
And you also did run a tap down every headbolt hole too, yes?

Mine always seped alittle antifreeze around the front head bolt.

I'm kind of nutz about having things "surgically clean" whenever possible..I've never needed spray copper, or used sealer on the bolts. I actually followed the factory manual years ago, and havent changed the procedure. It is worse on the small blocks with only 4 bolts around each bore.

Wipe head and deck clean. Rag with carb cleaner. Spray steel shim gaskets with copper spray.