Head gaskets for aluminum heads

[Chris396]

I'm swapping my iron L78 heads for a set of 842 aluminum heads along with a '69 tripower for something a little different and Day 2. What head gaskets do you recommend to use with the aluminum heads, and what head bolts and washers should I use?

[Xplantdad]

Ken should know...Kwhizz...you out there? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beers.gif

[Chris396]

Anybody?

[Nova Jed]

An engine builder told me something about Fel-Pro making good aluminum head gaskets.

[Schonyenko2]

Make sure they have the stainless steel rings in the gasket.And yes the fel pros should work fine. Make sure you torque them correctly, and recheck after running a few miles.

[VintageMusclecar]

What year is your block? It makes a difference whether it's series-cooling or parallell-cooling as to which style of head gaskets you use.

Eric

[markjohnson]

Well, if you use Fel-Pro's with the stainless steel ring, they will sure-as-hell leave a nice indentation in your nice, soft, expensive aluminum heads that will need to be re-surfaced next time you have the heads off. You really don't want to do that. A much better choice would be to use Cometic multi-layer gaskets. You can even get them in whatever thickness you like to maintain your compression ratio instead of that super-thick Fel-Pro. Sure, they're expensive at around $90 apiece, but I only buy the best for my cars. My two cents.

[budnate]

Mark is right, and like he said you can order what ever thickness you need to set your quench right. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/3gears.gif and if you ever pop them off the surfaces will clean up fine.
last time I checked I thought they were about 150 a pair..cant recall the shop but they make them for the nascar boys.

[ QUOTE ]
Well, if you use Fel-Pro's with the stainless steel ring, they will sure-as-hell leave a nice indentation in your nice, soft, expensive aluminum heads that will need to be re-surfaced next time you have the heads off. You really don't want to do that. A much better choice would be to use Cometic multi-layer gaskets. You can even get them in whatever thickness you like to maintain your compression ratio instead of that super-thick Fel-Pro. Sure, they're expensive at around $90 apiece, but I only buy the best for my cars. My two cents.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Schonyenko2]

You may be right, but we had no impressions on the heads when we took them off. We did almost torch a motor before we used them. This has been 15 years ago or so, so I expect there are better gaskets now.

[Chris396]

Thanks Mark I'll check them out. The block is a '69 and the heads are probably from the 70's. They don't have any dates on them.