Stacked steel head gasket warning

[John Purdom]

For those using or considering stacked steel headgaskets such as RJC sells, a bit of advice to avoid a major problem.

After my total rebuild, my car would oil smoke badly, especially after accelleration, then idle, as well as drip from the breathers.. Went thru all of the usual suspects including the turbo (was new, Limit), PCV sys, guides, leakdown (perfect) etc. Finally after pulling the heads, this is what we found.

Most of the oil drainback holes and water passages in the headgaskets were blocked with the silicone sealant. The oil was puddling on top of the heads.

Understand that this was our fault, not Jason's. The rebuild was done in the winter, and the silicone was obviously too cold to spread thin enough with the supplied roller. This application needs to be paper thin, almost as tho you sprayed it on. If you see squeezout when you torque the heads, you are probably going to have a problem.

I hope that relaying our mistake can help someone else. I feel lucky not to have damaged the lower end from oil starvation. My saving grace was that I wouldn't drive the car in "mosquito fogger" mode, so it saw little use.

 

[sumnerw]

John-

Thanks for the heads up. I recall reading Smokey Yunick's book where he talks about using sealant on head gaskets. He said he'd install the heads and gaskets, torque them to about 50 ft-lbs and then remove them to clean off the "squish" that seeped out into the the various oiling and cooling passages as well as into the combustion chamber (where he was vitally concerned
about the residue promoting detonation). Then he'd reinstall and fully torque everything.

Good luck,
Buzz White in Houston, TX

 

[1badTTA]

I guess you used a little more than I did as the only problem (again from using too much sealant) I had was it closed the coolant hole (the 2 on the top) enough to limit flow and my car would run hotter than normal.

 

[buickboy]

Use Cometics MLS HG's and forget the silicone mess. Work super.
Mitch

 

[6SENSE]

Good post

Little too late for me though. I ran a single set of steel shim 84/85 gaskets w/ the prefered GE silicone on a block a little while back. Its now sitting on a engine stand on the side of the garage after developing a bad bottom end knock
John, the scenario you have mentioned may very well be what did my old block in. Memory tells me that I probably used too much of the goo.
Ive had good success with the stock GM 86/87 gaskets.

 

[John Purdom]

6sense, sorry to hear of the demise of your motor. I have no doubt that this would have happened to me had I driven the car more.

I have ordered another set of the double stacked metal gaskets from Nick, along with the Isky springs I was looking for. Nick went thru a rather involved installation process for the gaskets that include several re-torque cycles, and using spray coppercoat instead of the silicone. Use teflon sealer on the bolts, and torque should be 85#. Nick said he's had great luck with this setup, and likes it better than Cometics (for iron heads) so I'm going to give it a go. My only issue was with the silicone. Nick said that anyone that wants his step by step installation method of these gaskets can call him. (Thanks, Nick)

 

[strikeeagle]

Let me say I love my stock head gaskets. The ones from 1987...

 

[Red Regal T]

Originally posted by strikeeagle
Let me say I love my stock head gaskets. The ones from 1987...

Hey, guess what? I use the stockers, too.

I just read an article in the latest GSCA magazine referring to double shim headgaskets. The article states they have had good luck with the shim headgaskets sprayed with metallic aluminum spray can paint. Paint both sides of both gaskets and install. According to the article, it works! I'd certainly look into it if I was going with the steel shims.

 

[DR BOOST]

When using the steel shim headgaskets, you must enlarge to holes to prevent blockage by the silicone. ive never had problems with the gaskets .

for a change, i used cometics on my new engine, and i had to use seal tabs to seal em up.

on head bolts use hi temp rtv, on studs use blue loctite....no leaks.


surej

 

[SITHV6]

ohhh great....

something eles to worry about my rebuild...gonna have to ask my mechanic if he did go apeshyt with the siliconing. there WAS a considerable sign of the silicone coming out of the bottom when squeezed into place...