Headgaskets Aluminum Heads

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1badfish67

1badfish67

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Just received a new set of aluminum heads for my 340 build, Promaxx 171/65cc heads. Never ran aluminum heads. Anyone have any recommendations for head gasket materials to use or ones to avoid?

Appreciate any thoughts.


Thanksanks
 
Yup. If it was me, I would call Cometic and see what they recommend.
 
Also as a FYI Cometic states on their site and will probably tell you if directly asked not to put anything on their gaskets but my builder and MANY others also copper coat their gaskets as they do have a history of seeping some water.
 
1badfish67 said:
Just received a new set of aluminum heads for my 340 build, Promaxx 171/65cc heads. Never ran aluminum heads. Anyone have any recommendations for head gasket materials to use or ones to avoid?

Appreciate any thoughts.


Thanksanks
Click to expand...
Depending on any quench Etc you can either run a Fel-Pro 1008 or felpro 521sd
The 1008 is .039 compressed while the 521sd is .052-.054 conpressed thickness. You can run other head gaskets as well but these are the two that I would look at and that I use myself. There is also a cheaper 8553 felpro that is .046 compressed thickness as well..
 
'68cuda416 said:
Also as a FYI Cometic states on their site and will probably tell you if directly asked not to put anything on their gaskets but my builder and MANY others also copper coat their gaskets as they do have a history of seeping some water.
Click to expand...
I use copper on them as well. I only go cometic if I need a particular thickness. Nothing screams that the op needs a cometic gasket.. its funny that we are reading it mentioned first.
 
Cometic multi-layer. Take out the rivets and copper coat both sides of all three gaskets for each head for a street engine. I have seen many have problems dripping water when cooled down after some heat cycles. Most of them drip water right off the rivet itself. The coolant always seams to find the rivet before it drips.
 
I use Fel-Pro 1008 on aluminum And 8553 PT on iron unless it is over 10-10.5 compression, then it gets 1008
 
Mopar has a spray coating that you sprayed on Neon head gaskets when upgrading to the mls. I did it first on my '96.

I never had a lick of head gasket trouble with that combo, and I once looked down while jamming along on the freeway to see the temp needle fully pegged and no steam from the car because it was bone dry in the cooling system (radio was blasting so I didn't hear the alarm)

I had to pour water down the spout in little sprinkles and stand back while it belched boiling hot water and steam back out at me. I'm amazed it didn't crack the block doing that, but it finally cooled it off enough to fill it, which I did and drove away. Went on to put another 250k on that engine and the head gasket never wept or leaked, even after that.
New thermostat gasket and I was gtg.
 
Torque specs on sb mopar cometics are weak, I torque them more than required..only copper the outside of the gaskets faces and torque. No leaks.
Dont even need them though.
 
I used 1008 on my Speedmasters and no leaks for the first 5-6 heat cycles then I started to get a very slight weep of coolant between the head and block. I looked all over for re-torque information and it was quite hit and miss. Some say no and other say yes after several heat cycles go back and re-torque. I re-torqued and found a few head bolts had backed off or something relaxed. Have not ran the engine since but the weeping stopped. Block was square decked. Never had this issue with Iron heads. Just food for thought.
 
47 years of racing and I’ve never retorqued a head gasket. Big block, small block, 2.2 Chrysler, felpro or Cometic. I guess I’m
Lucky.
 
pittsburghracer said:
47 years of racing and I’ve never retorqued a head gasket. Big block, small block, 2.2 Chrysler, felpro or Cometic. I guess I’m
Lucky.
Click to expand...
Don't forget pulling them apart and spraying some sort of sealer in them LOL
 
Bakerlite said:
Don't forget pulling them apart and spraying some sort of sealer in them LOL
Click to expand...
I've never used a sealer, I was taught by my grandfather and dad to retorque the top end.
Never had a problem by doing so.
I even use an inch pound torque wrench on the tins. lol
Broke in cams years ago with wheel bearing grease. lol
Never a flat lobe. I guess I was lucky, many here are not.:D
 
fishmens67 said:
I've never used a sealer, I was taught by my grandfather and dad to retorque the top end.
Never had a problem by doing so.
I even use an inch pound torque wrench on the tins. lol
Broke in cams years ago with wheel bearing grease. lol
Never a flat lobe. I guess I was lucky, many here are not.:D
Click to expand...
I use an inch pound on the tin stuff with cork gaskets for obvious reasons as well. The cork can usually do with a re-torque down the track.
Cometics come with a coating already on them, so it's beyond me why you would coat them.
Back in the day some production engines required re-torquing at various service intervals, but the "monotorque" style gasket put an end to that.
It's pretty obvious by this thread that people don't understand why differnt styles of gaskets are made and what thier aplications are designed for, also how to use them correctly.
 
1badfish67 said:
Just received a new set of aluminum heads for my 340 build, Promaxx 171/65cc heads. Never ran aluminum heads. Anyone have any recommendations for head gasket materials to use or ones to avoid?

Appreciate any thoughts.


Thanksanks
Click to expand...
I would contact the manufacturer (or Edelbrock) and see what they recommend. I read on another site that head gaskets with a copper ring are the best.
 
Bakerlite said:
I use an inch pound on the tin stuff with cork gaskets for obvious reasons as well. The cork can usually do with a re-torque down the track.
Cometics come with a coating already on them, so it's beyond me why you would coat them.
Back in the day some production engines required re-torquing at various service intervals, but the "monotorque" style gasket put an end to that.
It's pretty obvious by this thread that people don't understand why differnt styles of gaskets are made and what thier aplications are designed for, also how to use them correctly.
Click to expand...
Well it may be beyond you but in the real world where you have multiple high end engine builders doing engines of significant power and have had issues with the Cometics and so they all now copper coat and no more issues.....take it however you want.
 
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