I have a 3.1L engine.
As many of you know the bore of this engine is 89mm. So I need to use the HKS metal Headgasket...right?.....wrong?
I had been told by everyone that this was the only headgasket I could use because the bore of it is 91mm and that the bore of all other comercially available gaskets is 88mm.
The question often appears, "Is the HKS gasket reusable?"
My answer would be NO....it's not reusable, in fact it's not usable at all.
After 5 attempts (and many cans of copper coat) I have given up on the HKS gasket. Yes my block and head are flat, I checked on Sunday.
I simply could not get the HKS gasket to seal completely. If I could get the combustion chambers to seal, then I'd get some oil seepage. If I'd get the oil passages sealed, I'd get some blowby from the combustion chambers. Further the HKS gasket blocks one of the water passages (rear drivers side). This passage is quite large and I think that this was contributing to my inability to get a proper seal.
The most noticeable feature was the fact that my cooling system would pressurize in about 1 minute of idle.
So what does one do..
On the advice of Kjones (poster on this forum) I decided to try some of the more commercially available gaskets.
...I got a HG from both Napa (brand unknown) and Auto-Zone (fel-pro)
I got out my dial caliper and lo-and-behold the fel-pro had an 89mm bore. The Napa gasket had a 90mm bore (more on this later).
After feeling good about this for a second, I realized that the napa gasket was missing 3/4 of the water passage holes. The fel-pro had all of the appropriate holes but was a slightly smaller bore.
I decided to use the Napa gasket, so after some drilling (and chamfering with a Uni-bit) I had a gasket I thought I could live with.
So I put it on the clean block and notice that there is NO room for error on the bore.....my caliper must be off. The gasket cannot move during assembly or it will be in the combustion chamber. This doesn't concern me as much since my pistons were fly cut to not protrude...but dammit I'm not doing this again. In order to make sure that the gasket stayed in place I used a LITTLE bit of super glue right on the metal to block.....my buddy does this all the time on rotary engines during assembly.
Long story short...this gasket worked.....I'm not seeping and I'm not building pressure in my cooling system....I haven;t done a compression test yet...but the reason for that is something else....
During this whole process I apparently did something to the timing chain as the slack side now slaps.....WONDERFUL.....so now the engine has to come out and the front cover removed.......just another day in this never ending saga
In conclusion, you do not have to use the HKS gasket on a 3.1L.....in fact after my ordeal I wouldn't recommend it. It is expensive and often takes a week or more to get. fel-pro or napa takes only a day in Austin, TX.
-Wayne
As many of you know the bore of this engine is 89mm. So I need to use the HKS metal Headgasket...right?.....wrong?
I had been told by everyone that this was the only headgasket I could use because the bore of it is 91mm and that the bore of all other comercially available gaskets is 88mm.
The question often appears, "Is the HKS gasket reusable?"
My answer would be NO....it's not reusable, in fact it's not usable at all.
After 5 attempts (and many cans of copper coat) I have given up on the HKS gasket. Yes my block and head are flat, I checked on Sunday.
I simply could not get the HKS gasket to seal completely. If I could get the combustion chambers to seal, then I'd get some oil seepage. If I'd get the oil passages sealed, I'd get some blowby from the combustion chambers. Further the HKS gasket blocks one of the water passages (rear drivers side). This passage is quite large and I think that this was contributing to my inability to get a proper seal.
The most noticeable feature was the fact that my cooling system would pressurize in about 1 minute of idle.
So what does one do..
On the advice of Kjones (poster on this forum) I decided to try some of the more commercially available gaskets.
...I got a HG from both Napa (brand unknown) and Auto-Zone (fel-pro)
I got out my dial caliper and lo-and-behold the fel-pro had an 89mm bore. The Napa gasket had a 90mm bore (more on this later).
After feeling good about this for a second, I realized that the napa gasket was missing 3/4 of the water passage holes. The fel-pro had all of the appropriate holes but was a slightly smaller bore.
I decided to use the Napa gasket, so after some drilling (and chamfering with a Uni-bit) I had a gasket I thought I could live with.
So I put it on the clean block and notice that there is NO room for error on the bore.....my caliper must be off. The gasket cannot move during assembly or it will be in the combustion chamber. This doesn't concern me as much since my pistons were fly cut to not protrude...but dammit I'm not doing this again. In order to make sure that the gasket stayed in place I used a LITTLE bit of super glue right on the metal to block.....my buddy does this all the time on rotary engines during assembly.
Long story short...this gasket worked.....I'm not seeping and I'm not building pressure in my cooling system....I haven;t done a compression test yet...but the reason for that is something else....
During this whole process I apparently did something to the timing chain as the slack side now slaps.....WONDERFUL.....so now the engine has to come out and the front cover removed.......just another day in this never ending saga
In conclusion, you do not have to use the HKS gasket on a 3.1L.....in fact after my ordeal I wouldn't recommend it. It is expensive and often takes a week or more to get. fel-pro or napa takes only a day in Austin, TX.
-Wayne
