Head gasket recommendations
 

Just wondering what head gaskets people are using for their 440's. I think I blew mine out when breaking in the cam. it runs fine but I'm getting a lot of water in the oil and out of the pipe.

A little lite on info..... But Fel-Pro's work ok in my book....

Fel Pro with a fire ring for iron heads, I use Cometics for aluminum heads, no fire ring which will "dent" the aluminum.

The heads are 915's, the block is stock bore as far as I know. The head gaskets I was using are the fel-pro 1009. Should I stick with that or is there something that might seal a little better? I think part of the reason it blew was that a couple of the spark plug wires got a little too close to the headder and were melted while I was braking in the cam.

I'm still using up my supply of nos mopar steel gaskets.

As long as the compression is not crazy.. Fel-Pros are fine. When you pull the heads your going to have to make sure the block deck and the head surface are flat all over again... Also.. Make sure all the head bolt yeided the torqe to spec.
....:)

Great advance!....... It doesn't matter what gasket your using if surface isn't flat and true!!!!

I'll store that in the "Need to know" file.....lol

In all the big blocks I've put together, I have never had a problem with head gaskets.

Not once....

Who evers head gaskets you use make sure you know the final compression thickness before installing. Fel-pro has the specs on their site.

I have also had nothing but good luck with steel shim... Mine worked great till about 11.5.1CR. Just saying.... :)
You are soo old school....lol... Shhhhhh me too...Hahahahahaha

I use them in my 12.5 motor, but block and heads have been cut so they are true.

Bob my signature says it all!

How is that truck running SPAM ? Or is it not fixed yet??????

I'm still having problems. I removed the head again last week and am now looking for cracks. I'm about to throw in the towel and buy a set of heads from Hughes engines. It's frustrating to have this thing so close to being finished and have a problem like this.

Hummmm. So are the surfaces not flat on the head and block?
Has it blown out the head gaskets again?
Did you check to see if (When you had the heads off) all the cylinders were free of any cracks?
Hope you find it here soon..:)

Check the block, very good chance block is not square, look at heads again and make sure they are flat and true.:dance:

This is all basic rebuild stuff that gets overlooked because of cost, but on a performance build should be standard.cash

Well, I double checked the block and heads and they are as good as the mechinest said they were. I pulled the valves from the leaking cylinder and didn't see any crackes or imperfections. I reassembled everything with a new head gasket and now it is running fine with no smoke at all. On the old head gasket I did notice a little indent into the cylinder that was getting wet almost like a flat spot in the ring. I hope this fixes the problem but I will continue to watch it. Thanks for the helps guys.

Might re torque the head after about a week...

Glad to see things are going your way. sometimes it's a little thing that gets ya.

Well after almost 2 years and 6 times pulling the heads the shop I took them too found 3 places that the first guy cut into the water jacket while porting them. So now I'm on the hunt for new closed chamber heads to go with everything I have done. If anyone knows of any for sale for a good price let me know.

Not weldable?

I don't think it would be worth it. They are 915's that I had 2.14/1.81 valves put it and opened up but I guess the guy went too far. They already had some port work done so it is kind of my word against his so he isn't even going to pay for it. The shop that finally found the problem had to pressure test them. I'm just thinking of going with some CNC ported RPM heads from Hughesengines.com but I guess I will need rockers and push rods if I go aluminum.

Check with Andy F. over at Gray's Automotive over in Oregon... He might have something that might fit your need... Or you can find him over on "For A Body Only"... :)