head gasket thickness

[odee]

guys got my head back from the machinist, took 5 thousands off the deck surface. The machinist said that I would need a thicker gasket because of the cut. The fel pro that I bought prior to the work is thinner than the one that came off. He said the valves may hit, his shop sales the victor reinz gaskets any good? I'm having second thoughts of this on using the felpro vs the cummins part or victor. Any more input on this?

[skilletky]

ive run the felpro and cummins. both the same if you ask me. ive blew both of them with in a month. the third one i ran was a felpro. lasted a year at 45 psi and stock head bolts. i got a .020 over victor reinz now. with studs and an o ringed head, its held up to 70 psi of boost several times and sees 45 to 50 psi + W/M about every day. dont reuse your old stock head bolts. get new ones, clean the head bolt threads up in the block, and use a good lube on the threads and bottom of the head bolt head.

[odee]

thanks, how does the victor compare to the cummins and felpro. The shop owner allowed the engine would be good with the stock bolts since I'm not running big boost numbers, but I may try to squeeze the studs into the budget.

[PToombs]

I'm running a Victor-Reinz gasket on mine, I got it at work, we sell quite a few of them and no complaints. I had it o-ringed and studded at the same time though. Is the gasket you have a stock replacement gasket? You say it's thinner, but if it's a stock replacement it should be the same. I wonder if the gasket was replaced before and the one removed is an oversized one? It's hard to visually compare a new gasket to one that's 20 years old and crappy looking.
Do you wind the truck up very high? If not, .005 isn't much and you might be able to get away with the stock one. If you run it hard and wind the snot out of it you definitely should get the thicker one.

Can you take the felpro back and exchange it for a thicker one? That's the route I'd try since you already have the money invested it in, instead of buying another one from the machinist and being out another $100.

[revemup15]

ive run the felpro and cummins. both the same if you ask me. ive blew both of them with in a month. the third one i ran was a felpro. lasted a year at 45 psi and stock head bolts. i got a .020 over victor reinz now. with studs and an o ringed head, its held up to 70 psi of boost several times and sees 45 to 50 psi + W/M about every day. dont reuse your old stock head bolts. get new ones, clean the head bolt threads up in the block, and use a good lube on the threads and bottom of the head bolt head.

Ive been saying cummins and felpro is almost identical... just make sure you get felpros new stock.. i have the part number around here somewhere

[RCCUMMINS89]

guys got my head back from the machinist, took 5 thousands off the deck surface. The machinist said that I would need a thicker gasket because of the cut. The fel pro that I bought prior to the work is thinner than the one that came off. He said the valves may hit, his shop sales the victor reinz gaskets any good? I'm having second thoughts of this on using the felpro vs the cummins part or victor. Any more input on this?

If he took it off the head, then it doesn't change the compression. We have a flat deck head.

Your machinist should know better.

[PToombs]

RC, he never said anything about compression. He said the valves may hit because they are now closer from the milling.

[RCCUMMINS89]

ooooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my bad.

Ya, you've got a ways before your valves hit though. I worried about this when I had mine done and an engine builder that well......does cummins for a living, said "unless you've milled 10 off and are running a decent aftermarket cam, you've got nothing to worry about."

[odee]

thanks for the input guys. Does anybody know how to tell the thickness of the oe gasket by the marks? I've been told to look for 0's or triangles in the gasket edge by the intake? thanks

[skilletky]

if its the stock gasket, then its .061 i believe.

[odee]

I got my new cummins gaskets over the weekend. Big difference in the weight between the two, the cummins is the thicker one. Hopefully I will be getting the truck in the shop to work on it this evening. Now got to remember where everything goes back to.

[PToombs]

Did you get oversize gasket? If so, it will be thicker and heavier than the stock one you had to begin with.

[skilletky]

not to hijack the thread, but i had i think .015 taken off my head, so i ran the thicker gasket. could i get away with running a stock gasket? im runnine a 4k gov spring with 110 or 150 lb valve springs.

[RCCUMMINS89]

Depends on your cam..... In stock application you SHOULD be fine.

[skilletky]

its stock for now. was thinking of putting in a cam at some point in time.