To make a long story short here

No water curculation -> Motor got HOT = Blown head gaskets and warped heads

The head gaskets used were FEL-PRO 9966PT. This was on a 1993 396 Stroker. Well I was taking the heads off and on the heads and the block on the intake side between the cylinders, there are rather large water passages. They kinda look like a butterfly with open wings. It looks like it's to flow a significant amount of coolant. Well on the headgaskets, there is only two 1/8 in holes. And the passages on the heads and block are about 1" by 2". The same is also true on the exhaust side but the actual holes are smaller and the gasket holes are larger so I don't think it was as bad of a problem.

The two holes on the outsides (front and back) of the block are the right sizes but the three in the middle aren't right???

I just spent about $360 from summit to get a new csi wp and Fel-pro 1074 gaskets and other needed gaskets.

My question to you guys is...was these passages supposed to be cut out of the gasket or is it supposed to be like this....or is it the wrong gasket???

Please help my guys. I need to find out what's wrong and quick.
I need the car done by May 18th for HS nationals at Norwalk and I'm running low on time.

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

I would think with gaskets that are that vital, they would fit perfect, and definitly wouldnt need any trimming, but what do I know.

I know when I have done them on 5.0's, the gaskets always line up perfect. Esp. if the passage is in both the heads and the block.

-James

 

the 1074s have the correct coolant passages.

 

are u using the correct gaskets? you know we cant use standard 350 gaskts right?

are the upside down/right side up/ inside out

gaskets shouldn't block passages

 

did anyone else out there us the 6699pt gaskets. They are the fel-pro's from autozone???? Did you guys have this problem.

The thing is I didn't build the engine, I had it built at a shop and I just discovered this as I was pulling the heads off. The box says it's for 92-97 5.7 engines with vin code P. So that's the lt1 right???
Well...the box also says excluding corvette. Well I thought they were the same???

If anyone can post a picture on here of a set of heads or a picture of a gasket, I will point out what I am talking about.
(Still new to the site and don't know how to post pics)

Should I try to get ahold of the shop that built the motor and try to get them to pay for the cost of me having to redo his mistake???

 

Wrong gasket, who bought the parts?

Rich Krause

 

how do you know it's the wrong gasket??

Is there more than one 9966PT. b/c if you call autozone, the gasket they have is the 9966pt. and arent our cars vin P??

how do you know?

 

I just used the same gasket 9966 PT on my block but before I put them on I compared them to the old ones that came off and they were the same thing, the size of all the holes matched and everything so I don't know why this would be the wrong gasket. Anyone else have any input??

Myles

 

I think that might be the truck 350's. They dont have reverse cooling.

 

I just found my stock head gasket and they're the sames as the ones I just blew. They have I tiny hole where there are large passages on the heads and block. I don't understand it. It doesn't seem very efficient to me. (water passage 1" x 2" -- to and 1/8" hole -- and back to a large passage,

Anyone else have any input?

 

The holes in the gasket won't match the machined passages because the holes in the gasket are sized to control the flow of coolant and distribute it correctly. The FelPro 1074 was recently redesigned to distribute coolant even better.