Old style head gaskets

I will try to get some pics up in the next couple days of the different models of gaskets. Victor Reinz/Clevite made the most recent head gaskets, but have stopped making them. They are getting harder to find. I have a request out right now waiting to hear back if this company has any. I will post up what I find.

doghead said:

If you change the studs to stronger ones, and increase the torque I think you will deform the head and or block. I do not think the gasket is the weak point, or the hardware.

I do not recall a single member ever posting that they have had a head gasket failure after replacing them with a new(newest) set.

Maybe after 45 years, a simple and rather inexpensive head gasket replacement is all that is really needed for another 50 years of use.

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This modification of using "ARP" studs for higher torque came from Tracey Varns. He has been doing it for years on his modified pulling tractors, and said he has no problems with head gaskets going out afterwards. Of course the original gaskets have lasted for years too. I just want the insurance in case I'm tooling around in say, Alaska !

The minimum clamp load for the head gasket should be 4x the peak cylinder pressure. The greater the peak cylinder pressure, the greater the clamp load needs. It would be interesting to do the math to determine the existing clamp load of the stock studs based on the torque applied to the nuts, the required minimum clamp load based on 4x peak cylinder pressure, and the limits of the stock studs (~70% of proof load).

Head Gaskets

Rusty says, "if I'm tooling around Alaska sometime".

Yeah, well thats what I have been thinking for the last 40 some years. There are some bugs, here and there in some of this MV stuff, and its long past the time when I can just turn it in, and get another one. Try Eagle Summit sometime, and wonder if your going to make it, or on many other places here. This isn't exactly a mud puddle, in back of somebody's corn field. So lets fix this one. Since I work best with big hammers, Its going to take somebody else to run the numbers. But with todays technology, I'm very confident that we can smooth out the bugs!

so if the old style gasket lasted 40 years, even though it may only be 20 to 30 k miles, why would someone need the new style to last more than, say 4 times as long? the point is that many early diesel truck engines had head gasket problems. this problem killed off the 9.0 international engines and only right at the end did they have reliable gaskets. i dare say that with new style gaskets you will never again have a problem. this does suppose that you install them correctly and by that i mean preparation. i have never seen a multifuel head that did not need resurfacing even if it is only a .002 cut to clean it, it needs it. also liner protrusion is critical as is cleaning the deck and threads of the studs along with proper torquing.

rosco said:

Rusty says, "if I'm tooling around Alaska sometime".

Yeah, well thats what I have been thinking for the last 40 some years. There are some bugs, here and there in some of this MV stuff, and its long past the time when I can just turn it in, and get another oneView attachment 531147. Try Eagle Summit sometime, and wonder if your going to make it, or on many other places here. This isn't exactly a mud puddle, in back of somebody's corn field. So lets fix this one. Since I work best with big hammers, Its going to take somebody else to run the numbers. But with todays technology, I'm very confident that we can smooth out the bugs!

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Rosco, sometime in my life I plan to drive the "AlCan" high-way . My father worked on building it before the war, and used to tell use stories of Alaska's beauty (and bugs ! ). I have been to Alaska twice on cruise ships, but never the interior. I still have family in Fairbanks, and Sitka. I should visit them sometime before I die.

Anyone still researching head gaskets? I've got a set of the tab type, 10951428, and wondered if the new style would be a absolute recommendation.

Monkeyboyarmy said:

Anyone still researching head gaskets? I've got a set of the tab type, 10951428, and wondered if the new style would be a absolute recommendation.

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Well considering no one at this time is making any new ones I guess whatever you have on hand is good . The newer style is better of course and if you can still find some then I would buy them.