I have to pull my passengers side head off to rethread the plug holes, and i am looking for some opinions on a head gasket? Also, can i reuse my intake gaskets? They look to be in very good shape, but i dont want any leakage so if need be i will buy new ones too. Would using this felpro one be a problem or should i go to the GM dealer and get one. How much would they charge? Thanks guys

 

If the heads have never been off and you are only going to change one, I would use the GM head gasket stock replacement. I don't know what the effects are of having higher compression on one side of the motor, but it probably isn't a great idea.

The passenger side is the hard side. Once you have it off, it won't be anything to pull the DS head if you wanted to. I would suggest pulling both and replacing with a thinner head gasket to increase your compression. You can use either the Mr. Gasket or GM Impala gaskets.

Also, I'm sure you know that you can't reuse the stock head bolts either. Get some ARP bolts.

 

You can use stock type Felpro gaskets for all. Don't reuse gaskets.

 

I used a felpro 1074's, bumps you up to 10.7:1 compression

 

really i def. didnt know that you couldnt reuse stock head bolts. Why can't you? Im going to go with a stock GM gasket so i dont mess with the compression.

 

New bolts are just good insurance. Some will try to tell you that they are torque-to-yield (TTY) and they cannot be reused. The fact is, that the same bolts were used 93-97 on LT1s and they only changed to the torque/angle (TA) method of tightening them in later years. That does not necessarily make them TTY bolts. (people like to confuse TTY and TA)

It's better to buy some bolts like ARPs that can safely be reused a few times.

 

I bought some ARP's for 50 bucks and put them on. Better insurance and clamp to prevent leak next time.

 

anyone know if this is an oem gasket that won't mess with my compression?
http://www.autozone.com/R,APP686737/...ductDetail.htm

 

Why do you care about compression much? I'm pretty sure anything from AZ which is mostly felpro is going to bump the compression. It's a good thing....better burn, a couple more ponys...Why not? It won't hurt anything to bump up a few points.

 

becuase im only doing one side, and i assume that it would be bad to have higher compression on one side than on the other

 

I see, well honestly you should do both since no matter what each bank won't be the same. I just got done doing mine it took me 2 weeks, and its probably only another 1 hour of work to get the other head off.

If you insist on doing one side, then get the GM gasket. Any aftermarket won't be the same....meaing you have to go to a dealer and get bent over.

 

That's what is on my engine (both heads, of course). AFAIK, it is for stock replacement.

 

so whats the consensus? I dont want to mess with the other head right now so i am still only going to do one side. Should i go to the dealer or what?

 

You should probably do it the correct way, then it wouldnt matter.

 

Go to the dealer.