Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance DO YOU NEED A BURNOUT RESISTANT FORD 300 HEAD GASKET?

I do.

I took my altered roadster to the strip today with the new crossflow cylinder head setup on it. I have been collecting parts to do it for the last 15 years and working on this new program for three months. After an easy pass of 9.653 seconds @ 139.79 MPH I put down a 9.329 @ 141.48 at only 6600 RPM through the lights. Since it had a conservative tune up on it and old tires, the wrong carbs, the wrong headers and short shifted I thought that was not too bad but then I had to make the decision of whether to start optimizing the combination by making changes or leave it alone and bracket race it . I decided to race it and not touch the engine. Well I went through six rounds of competition before a blown head gasket ended my day. Now head gasket failures have plagued me in the past but this new engine has even higher compression and I want a long term solution to this nagging problem.

Therefore, I am contacting some aftermarket gasket suppliers to design and build me some steel laminated, coated head gaskets for the 300 / 240 Ford inline six engines. If you are looking for an extreme duty head gasket similar in construction to the ones used in the Ford Modular V8/V10 Engine Family and in other high tech engines that see high cylinder pressures then reply to this post please. Be aware that these gaskets will probably cost $150 - $175 each due to the low volumes, but a regular FelPro #1024 gasket is about $50. Actual price is still TBD and may depend on the volume ordered. It is worth the additional cost to me if the gasket life is substantially increased. I will only build what I have commitments for so decide how many you will want and reply here or on the www.fordsix.com website BB. Don't send any money to me yet. Thanks.

French Is your issue on the gasket burning due to like our Chevys The Bad head bolt design around the Bores??
#3220 }[oooooo]

Yes, pretty mich. They blow between cylinders.

For what I have seen for myself On Our Is They Blow Out the side. (intake side) Not so much betwwen. When you start to Peek Ours Over
The 12-1 compression Even with studs.
}[oooooo]

On mine it is 99% of the time between cylinders, causing the instant loss of two cylinders. I was doing OK at 12.5:1, having to change gaskets every 100 runs or so, or about twice a year. Now at 13:1 - 8 passes. However my carbs were lean and by short-shifting I may have unintentionally lugged the motor down, exacerbating the gasket problem. Shaking down a new combo is always a trade off. You try to protect one part and end up abusing another. I will sweeten up the tune-up combo this weekend and try the FelPro 1024 one last time.

Larry, have you tried using Loctite brand Gasket Eliminator smeared sparingly around all the gasket openings?

when I was pushing The HIGH somewhere between 13.9-1 to 15-1 compression It make about 3 1/4 pass before the Head hasket went Poof . Now when I stayed off the Track the gasket Held up fine Till I'd deside to Out gun some Vthing on the street. Then I'd have to take the Head off Just for GP and didn't get stuck somewhere with a bad gasket. One time it took .010 out of the head on me. Because i didn't catch it soon enough.
But No I haven't tried it.


#3220 }[oooooo]

I always thought the 'drag race' gang O-ring the head/block to solve this.

Also: Mr. Gasket used to make special ones too.

JM....

O-ringing the block is OK for a race motor using a copper gasket. But my head carries pressurized oil passages , drain down passages, and pressurized coolant passages, all of which would need o-ringing to prevent seepage of one fluid into another if a copper gasket / o-ring combo were used. Early Ford Indy engines o-ringed every deck face passage with success. I've tried o-ringing the fire ring on a composite gasket with little success. Essentially I'm trying to run a streetable head combination carrying coolant but with a 13:1 compression ratio. My car has to run cool and consistently to be successful in bracket racing. It is maddening that I've overcome many obstacles to get this combo working good and be held up by a cheezy gasket.

What about ARP bolts & tighten the head up a little tighter??

JM....

even useing studs John helps but our L6s still have a sealing issue when it comes to a high compression. due to the way the head bolts are around the cyl. Just don't have the same bite as them vthings lol.
#3220 }[oooooo]

Would it be possible to install larger head bolts/studs to increase clamping force.I did this years ago on a early 223 Ford six.I drilled and retapped the block to use the later 223 Ford six head bolts and later 223 head.
EvilDr25

French,

Who did you contact about making gaskets for you?
And what was there minimum number of gaskets tobe made?

Ken
www.CustomDesignPerformance.com

i run a blown(9.5:1comp with 8.5 lbs of boost)hemi 6 with a copper head gasket, and have the head "o" ringed.to seal the water and oil passages,i coat the gasket(both sides)with "copper" silastic-seals perfectly.although next time the gasket comes off,i'll get the gasket 'o' ringed(as the gasket is 3mm thick)

UPDATE: I visited Cometic last month. They are really geared to making gaskets in lots of 100 or more, with an additional tooling charge of at least $1500 to boot. The biggest manufacturing issue is making tooling to put in fire ring embossments. I would have to get on their long waiting list of at least six months or more for consideration. But I was able to convince them to sell me a couple of multi-layered steel laminated gasket blanks with no embossing ($120 each). I am going to try one without any embossing and if it does not last then I plan to make my own embossing dies and stamp them myself in my second sample. If anybody with CNC capabilities or some open machine shop time wants to volunteer to help with this tooling then by all means contact me.

Stay tuned.