Re: Head Gasket Failure/Repair

["Bill Thebert" <bthebert@domain.elided>]

> Date: Sun, 18 Apr 1999 21:53:18 -0600 (MDT)
> From: Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>
> Subject: Re: First place and LEAKY HEADGASKET!
> 
> Have you thought to just change the head gasket out?  I recall Bill 
> Thebert's '71 Scout II blew a headgasket on the way to Nationals a few 
> years back.. somehow an IC gasket had been working just fine on a non-IC 
> 392 for quite some time.. I think it was somewhere in Indiana that it 
> finally blew.
> 
> Bill changed it out "in the field" (sorta) in a borrowed garage.

Tom:

> somehow an IC gasket had been working just fine on a non-IC 
> 392 for quite some time

Not exactly . . .

When installing 345 heads on a 392, naturally one must decide which GASKETS
to use -- the ones for the HEADS, or the ones for the BLOCK.

The "error" I had made was using V345 head gaskets (rather than pre-IC V392
head gaskets) on my motor that consists of the combination of the two.

The smaller-bore-diameter of the V345 leaves the gasket's metal "crush
ring" hanging over the edge of the V392 block's cylinder bores (or just
*barely* making contact with both the head & the block).

Total job in a borrowed garage took about 6 hours -- to do both sides. 
Won't be MUCH less to do only one side.  Besides, if you're going down that
far, why not do both.

Regards,

Bill