I have a b16 with ctr pistons and a head that is milled .030" BELOW MINIMUM specs.

I have an OEM headgasket, which is most likely not going to have enough clearance since the head is milled so much.

I have a custom cometic head gasket made to .074".

I also have a custom SCE Integral Combustion Seal (built-in O ring) made to .062".

I believe the cometic is steel and the SCE is copper. People tell me that the copper is bad because you have an aluminum head, copper gasket, and aluminum block, and the dissimilar metals have heating issues and lead to leaks. Well if the cometic is steel (just a guess here) then wouldn't you have the same issue with dissimilar metals? although now that i think about it, the OEM is steel, right?

anyway...help!

btw for reference, here's a SCE gasket link on the ICS model
http://scegaskets.com/products/ics.html
and yall probably already know http://www.cometic.com, they just have a .pdf catalog to download.


Modified by nissanjon at 6:40 PM 4/12/2005

 

bump. this is the tail-end of a 9 month build. help me decide please. i cant take it any longer. 9 months of Si withdrawals is a bitch. i want to put the engine back together tonight and i dont want to have to do the head gasket more than once.

edit - i just picked up the SCE copper gasket. looks kinda shitty. i'm going to line it up with the OEM when i get home. the cometic should be waiting there too by the time i get there.

 

Sorry to dig this up out of the depths of time, but I would really like to know where you went with this. Did you end up going with the copper gasket or the SCE?

I'm stuck at about the same point; I ordered a copper head gasket and then found out that the block should be o-ringed to prevent leakage. What I need to know now is if I should just abandon the copper gasket and find another way to shim the block (multiple stock head gaskets ).

Once again, sorry to bring this all the way back to the top, but I'd like to know the answer... and I'm a trial user so I can't send instant messages yet.

 

good question. i find out this weekend when i put the block/head together. i lined up all 3 gaskets. the SCE copper with the o-rings looks solid, but the holes dont cleanly line up with the holes on the block.

the Cometic is damn near identical to the OEM, but its like 3 times as thick, which i need because i have CTR pistons and an overmilled head.

i swear i have the longest/slowest build on this forum. i started last august.

 

Ugh, last August? Gotta love it.

I started my build about 2-3yrs ago. Half the problem was it took about a year and a half to get the head back from the shop (no exaggeration). Then once it was back the oversized valves that they put on (which I didn't order) made me think long and hard about what to do with the damn engine. I finally just went out and bought a piston/rod/crank kit off eBay and ended up with pistons that were way too big.

So here I am with a huge copper head gasket and no idea if it will seal properly. Basically in the same spot you're in. I guess that makes both of us no help to the other.

So anyone else out there ever had this problem? Help us out here!

 

i think what i really want to know is, since my head is milled so much below spec, I just want to know what the minimum spec is for milling a head.

how much can you mill a b-series head before you reach the minimum spec?