I was curious what head gasket I should be using with the sealed pro forged summit kit. I am using some heads by lloyd elliot and I want to make sure I am making the power that I should. I dont have a dial indicator, and I actually dont understand how to use it properly in order to get the piston to deck height or I would just measure and then get the correct gasket. Is there any other way to get the piston to deck height?

Thanks!

 

Is the bottom end stock? I would think a .021 in the hole is close to stock. Call Lloyd and ask. I went over this with him last week and we decided to grind a custom cam, but first I have to wait to see what my deck heighth would be. I gotta call the machine shop now cause they said today, but I have heard that excuse all week now.

 

The bottom end was built using the summit forged kit. So no its not stock parts. But I would imagine it would be real close to stock considering they say 10.4:1 just like the stock compression. If they are claiming 10.4:1 I would imagine that would be using their head gasket. I am really shooting in the dark though without measuring the piston to deck height.

 

Lloyd said that an ideal quench would be no tighter than .035 and no larger than .050. Anywhere in that range is good. When you did your block did you ask them to deck the block or did they just bore it? What is your compressed gasket thickness? .039? The 5176 from Mr.gasket is .026 compressed. It would bump you up .2 in compression, maybe. With good tuning, you should be fine running higher compression than that. Which cam are you running? That also plays into compression. Do a search on Dynamic compression ratio. Interesting reading. That was the main reason I decided to switch cams and called Lloyd to see what we can do.Sounds like , if I can get the info I need, SStrokerace will be grinding me a more nicer cam

 

yeah, I'll be going through this soon myself with a 396. I'm thinking I might need a thicker one with the stroker and a 6" rod.but with dragon racing 10 miles away I'll probably go through them to have the work done as they seem to be the better one in the area for f-bodies. a lot of performance shops here tend to be more into the ricers.

 

I think the pin is relocated in the piston to accomodate different rods and strokes. You wouldn't want the piston coming out of the block anywhere. I don't think that would be too good for the rings either.

 

yeah, the pistons are shorter to accomodate for the longer rod and stroke.

 

The best way would to go to my site located in my sig and check the specifications portion. I have a ton done to this motor and I already talked with lloyd elliot and I have read many rebuild books. The normal quench should be between .035 and .048. However in order to determine quench I have to know piston to deck height plus the gasket size. The summit forged kit that came with everything, including the gaskets does not have any information on the felpro head gasket that came with the kit. However, I would assume that summit wouldnt just throw in any gasket and call it good. I would imagine that they would use a head gasket that matched up to their piston kit the best. This kit only accepts 5.7 rods. I did not have the deck machined because it was in great shape and didnt need any milling. So basically the only thing changed was the align hone and the cylinder walls bored to 4.030 instead of 4.00. I am simply trying to find an easy way to check for the piston to deck height so then I can decide what the correct head gasket would be. If someone could explain what method they used when putting their motor back together I would appreciate it.

 

The only things that will effect how far the piston is down the bore is the block deck height, the piston compression height and the gasket thickness. So if you block wasn't decked when they machined it and you have stock crank,rods and replacement type pistons, your piston should be .025 in the hole so I would then use the Impala or Mr. Gasket .028 or .026 head gaskets for a quench clearance of .053 with Impy or .051 with the Mr. Gaskets.

 

Whats the stock gasket size? My machinest told me that the stock gasket would work just fine.

Here is the internals.

Stock Crank, Forged I Beam's 5.7, Forged Speed Pro Pistons flat top, GM847.

Thanks again for all the help.

Isn't .051 and .053 pretty high? I would image anywhere closer to .035 is better.

 

The stock thickness is .050 It will work fine but if you are going to tighten the quench up you will have to go elsewhere. The fel-pro 1074 have a compressed thickness of .039. The implala gaskets go to .028 and the mr.gaskets 5716 go to .026.
If you didn't deck the block, I don't think you are gonna do much better than that.

 

Dang, this stinks. So, since the gaskets that came with the kit are Felpro's I am going to assume they are 1074's and just use those.

Thanks for the info.

 

Summit sells the Mr. Gasket 5716. They are only 32.00 for the pair. They will get the quench down a little better than the fel-pro. I too bought the 1074 but I still have my receipt from summit(somewhere!)

 

The worst that will happen will be that I dont make the best HP/TQ that I could with the felpro gasket compared to the Mr.Gasket?

 

I too have the Summit kit, does anyone know the PN for the heads gaskets that are in it?