Head gasket - which way?

[82vdub]

I got a Fel Pro (Goetze) head gasket. I inspect it and find that the tab that shows the notches is on the opposite side of the oil drain back hole. I've always thought the tab goes to the right, but this one goes to the left. The new gasket does say "top" on the one side (facing up). The angled notch between the oil hole and head bolt hole is consistant on the right side. Anyone else have this issue?

[libbybapa]

The notch/hole location is irrelevant. The oil supply up to the head is VERY relevant.

[82vdub]

Thanks. It was going to go on the way in the pic, as that's the way I believed it should go.

[82vdub]

Wow, just discovered that I have an 11mm motor. My 12mm ARP studs don't fit. Anyone need a set of 12mm ARP head studs? I've always thought I had the 12mm motor, but apparently not. No cracks that I can find around the head bolts, and my goal of finishing the project by Monday is toast

[wmasscaddy]

11mm headbolts are reuseable. The 12mm bolts have to be replaced every time.

Would you say you tend to be lucky or unlucky?

[82vdub]

I'm not going to do head bolts in a 11mm motor. I wasn't even going to do head bolts in my 12mm motor,which wasn't 12mm.

I'm not lucky, nor unlucky, but I consider myself blessed.

[82vdub]

I'm looking at the ARP 11mm head studs 204-4203 for my motor. According to their online instructions, it says to torque the nuts to 80 ft/lbs. The 12mm studs I had said torque them to 125 ft/lbs. Since the 4203's are for a gas motor, what should I really torque them to for use on the diesel engine? ARP tech support said you torque them to the 80 ft/lbs listed and that is what's listed for that stud, not whether it's gas or diesel. Ironically, I called Raceware and they said their studs are specifically for diesel engines, and the torque rating for their studs is 50 ft/lbs.

[Fatmobile]

Raceware uses special sauce on the threads to reduce friction,
I also think they have a different thread pitch.

80 has worked great for me.

[82vdub]

ARP also has a fine thread for the nuts and special sauce for reducing friction. I ended up ordering ARP's for two reasons: My cost was 45% of Racewares, and the biggest factor was that the ARP's torque to 80 and the raceware only torque to 50. More (torque that is) isn't always better, but in this case, I think it is. In the end, I think either of them would have worked just fine.

[Fatmobile]

I got 12mm racewares for my Golf and oil seeps in the front and there is coolant coming from the threads of one of the studs. Green coolant oozing from the center of the nut.
I'll still reuse them when I do the headgasket but will probably spray it this time.

I beat my 1.5 Rabbit with the VNT alot harder with 11mm ARP headbolts and they held up better.
I have much more respect for the old 11mm blocks as long as you.

What is up with that lower head gasket?
I don't like what they did with the front oil drain hole, I've never seen an o-ring used there and why remove all the gasket material between the water jacket hole and the o-ring?

[82vdub]

The front oil drain hole rubber is not an o-ring, but a squarish hard rubber like the oval oil hole on the right. It's only open to the head bolt hole in the gasket. I think this should be ok.........

Aren't all head bolt holes blind holes on these engines? I filled them with PB Blaster to help clean out the crap in them, and blew them out with air. I think they are all blind holes.

[the man 53]

They are all blind holes. The 12mm ARP studs that I used were actually ford cogsworth studs and say to torque to 80ft/lbs. I torqued mine to 100ft/lbs. The chromoly alloy they are using is stronger than arp gives it credit for and I think for me the 100 was needed as I used an aaz gasket which is multi layered steel not fiber. I would torque to their specs and if you haven't felt the gasket crush give it at least 5 to 10ft/lbs more until you do.

[steevz]

Pretty sure OBEN means up. So any gasket that says OBEN on the side should face up.. might help some people in the future.

[Fatmobile]

I don't know why I was thinking that was water jacket when it's obviously a headbolt hole.
I still think it should have gasket all the way around it.

[82vdub]

I feel ok with it's construction enough to install it. If that hard rubber piece leaks, it will leak into a head bolt area. This is very similar to the oval hole to the right, where the oil feed and head bolt share the same opening in the gasket. I'm not a person to skimp on parts if I don't feel good about installing them. In short words, if it's worth doing once, do it correctly with quality parts so you're not doing it again. We'll see what happens. There should be sufficient clamping force in the area right around the head bolt (or stud in my case).

I checked the block and head for flatness and couldn't get the .016" feeler gauge under the straight edge at any point on the block and head. For a head that has 80-100,000 miles on it, the cracks between the valves were very small.