Head Gasket bore size

[dwg86]

I just checked advance auto parts. They have mopar performance head gasket for $17.99. Go to www.advanceautoparts.com, click on "shop online". In the new window that opens put in part number P4529242 in the search, and then hit "go".

[Mgardiner1]

I tried to order one through them already, but they told me a day later that it was either discontinued, or just unavailable.

[dwg86]

Well that bites!

[Mgardiner1]

I tried ordering one through Summit. They charge a freakin arm and a leg for it! But it should just be a one time thing so the extra $10 isn't a big deal

[SilverXJ]

I got my MP gasket from Monacatti chrysler. But I can no longer find the MP gasket. Jegs and Summit say they are back order but not for how long. Local jeep dealer has teh same thing. He put an order in. The Victor 5713 is teh same though and readily available at Carquest.

[woodjeep]

Even though this is way out of date, I needed a bigger bore head gasket do to some ooops during my combustion chamber porting. A company called SCE gaskets in California makes a copper gasket with a 4.060 bore. Thats what I am using....suuper expensive but I had no choice. The reason I ended up on this post is that their gasket has no triangular cooling holes around the headbolt holes on the side opposite the cam. The head and block has these holes and they match. I then found that the gasket I took off this engine has no holes in this location. Don't know the make of the gasket I took off.

[Muad'Dib]

That is normal and by design to help keep the proper flow of coolant.

[SilverXJ]

Normal. There should be some holes on the cam side though.



What thickness gasket is it? Do you need to o-ring the block/head for the copper, or does it have some sort of o-ring built in? Last time I checked with SCE (3 years ago?) they weren't making anything for the 4.0L

[woodjeep]

It looks exactly like your picture except in shiny copper. You don't need to o-ring the block because they put the ring in the gasket for the cylinder bores. You still need to spray the whole thing in permatex copper gasket spray for the water jacket holes to seal properly and the guys at my machine shop gave me some special silicon to help seal the water jacket holes. It is a .043 gasket. It cost me 300 bucks but I already had a valve job done on the head and I had a couple of weeks worth of port and polish and gasket matching on the ports. I also smoothed and opened the combustion chambers but I was a ROOKIE and did not realise how much material I had removed until I laid the stock gasket on it and went...SH*T. I had opened the bores to just about 4.00, maybe a little over where the chambers meet each other . This gasket is the only one I could find that had a bigger than 4.00 bore....its a 4.060 which now gives me plenty of clearance. I had to call them for this because it was not listed in their catalog but they either have them or will make one up for you....I just hope it doesn't leak

[5-90]

The gasket bore is usuallly rather larger than the cylinder bore - I want to recall (I'd have to measure to be sure) that the Fel-Pro AMC242 head gasket actually had something like a 4.000" or 4.025" bore. It will decrease slightly (a handful of thousandths) as the gasket is compressed, but it shouldn't hit at 3.905" or 3.935" (and I believe Mike Parrish used a standard Fel-Pro gasket for his 4.000" RENIX stroker years ago without any trouble...)

I can see going a bit larger if you manage to punch all the way out to 4.000" - maybe compressed bore of 4.025" or 4.030", max. Methinks SCE takes it a bit far going to 4.060" (since that .030"xcompressed thickness of "dead air" around the bore that won't get cooled off or exchanged, making an annular hot spot...) but it's still doable in copper (because copper will conduct heat away better than the typical composition will - which is why I like copper gaskets for performance buildups.)

[SilverXJ]

It cost me 300 bucks but I already had a valve job done on the head and I had a couple of weeks worth of port and polish and gasket matching on the ports.

Pricey. Can you at least re use it?
[/quote]I also smoothed and opened the combustion chambers but I was a ROOKIE and did not realise how much material I had removed until I laid the stock gasket on it and went...SH*T.[/quote] I was going to open the chambers up a bit when I did mine to unshroud the valves.... but then I put a head gasket on the head and noticed how little room there is to play with.

[woodjeep]

Its still brand new, I am just putting together for the first time. The opening of the combustion chambers to that size was unintentional. I just started grinding away the crud and unevenness and when it looked "real nice" I had found I opened them, 2 or 3 chambers , too big. I didn't lay the gasket on the head to measure how much clearance I had to begin with and I thought the cast iron would be tougher to remove than it was. I think its reuseable, If I get the water jacket sealed correctly, it should never have to come off again

[woodjeep]

Finally downloaded some pictures..the one that shows the old stock headgasket, you can see how the ring protrudes slightly into the chamber..NO GOOD. The ones on the head show that it fits just fine...a slight gap between gasket and edge of bore in all cyl's.. The new gasket did not have holes for the dowell pins and there was no way I was going to align a 100 pound head without them. My machine shop guys cut them out for me so I will put the head on sometime this week

[SilverXJ]

100 pounds? You need to eat some wheaties. Its like 70 pounds.

The dowels are very nice, but not necessary. The dowels weren't added until later. The previous method of aligning the head and gasket was to cut some heads of the old head bolts and align it that way instead of dowels.

[woodjeep]

That would have worked, I have the old headbolts. I was kind of worried manhandling the head with the soft copper gasket, and I didn't want it to move on me while I was trying to get the head aligned. Also you forgot my solid gold headgasket...that must add close to 30 pounds. Thanks for all the help..I hope to have it together within a week...depending on work