Im getting my new short-block in a few days, I was wondering what the best type/brand of head gasket I should invest in? I've searched around on a couple forums and diddnt really turn up anything. Are the $20 felpro's at Autozone decent? my compression is around stock but it does have .030 pistons. Any suggestions are appreceated.

 

naturally aspirated i assume?

if so, you can gain a little by going with a thin gasket like the Mr. gasket 5716 .026" (2 per package/sold as a pair) or factory Impala .029"

search either of them on here

 

I did some searching on here when I had the same question and found a lot of people going with the Mr. Gasket 5716 set. It is a thinner head gasket than the others. It list for the steel LT1 heads, but like I said, a bunch of people have used them on their aluminum heads. I ordered them from Summit for $33.69. Their on back order, so if you order them, be prepared to wait awhile. I'm going on about 2 weeks.

 

I diddnt know you could use a gasket designed for iron heads on an aluminum head.

 

I also have a set of the Mr Gasket 5716 Ultra-Seal .026" head gaskets back-ordered from Summit and just received an e-mail that they have been shipped. I haven't used them before, but plan to use them with my AFR LT4 heads, with 58cc chambers. They are listed for the iron heads, but from what I've read it is very common to use them on aluminum heads.

I wanted to keep my compression at 10.5 with the 58cc AFR heads, so the thin .026 gasket was my only option. If you use the .026 gaskets with 54cc chambers, you'll have about 10.97 compression. The factory LT1 gasket is .051" and is 10.4 with 54cc's.

Does everyone agree the Mr Gasket .026 is a good choice?

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2189634

 

Use the .026 Mr Gaskets or the .029 Impalas. I run the latter. I think Combo Motorsports has both.

 

To make an intelligent choice on the head gasket more info is needed on the shortblock. I mean if they zero decked it and you run a .026 gasket bad things could happen.

 

The heads are 58cc chambers with -5cc .030 overbore pistons. The machine shop recommended a 'stock style' gasket.

 

Have the heads or block been decked any? If not then you'll be fine with any of the above mention gaskets.

 

I ran the Mr. Gaskets and have zero problems on a stock short block

 

Just like 96 Capricemgr and Loadre said, check your deck height. You never want to go less than .035" quench on a street motor.

Chris

 

In my previous post I failed to mention the deck-height issue, which must be a minimum of .035" as mention in the previous post. Most stock bottom ends have about .020" or more deck-height, so with stock bottom-end and a .026" gasket you will have .046 and be OK. However, if you're near "0" deck-height with a re-build you'll need a much thicker gasket than the .026. Sorry I overlooked the deck-height issue.

 

I have had success with Fel-Pro in the past. On my rebuild I went with them again. One of them didn't seal properly and spurted water out #8 plug hole while priming the motor. Everything torqued correct also. I pulled the head and put a GM gasket in and all is well now.

Z

 

If ya got the Fel Pro 1074 on one side and a stock GM on the other ya got a mismatch.
The FP is .039 thick and the GM is .049 thick.

 

One thing about the Mr Gasket pieces that could be causing the shortage in supply is the packaging they use. When I got mine the plastic wrap stuck to the top gasket and pulled away the black sealing material from the metal core. I had to order a second set and then returned the defective gaskets from both sets. I understand this is a very common complaint with this product and can't believe they haven't fixed it.