Het guys, I am curious I saw some guys talking about doing the head gasket and replacing it with either a thicker one or doubling up on the gaskets. My question is if I only want to do one gasket what should the thickness be. I have seen several that are either .036in
.040in .075in .120in etc how do I know which is the correct thickness of my gasket? I know I need the 76mm gasket for the bore size but not sure about thickness. I do intend on putting arp head studs as well as main studs before I get my turbo setup..
oh car is a 2001 ex with a d17a2 1.7 and a B2B manual transmission

 

The factory gasket thickness is .026", so you want to get something as close to that as you can for proper timing belt tension and crank-to-cam orientation. IF the head has been milled, and/or the block has been cut, you need to add the missing material of each to the head gasket thickness to maintain the above mentioned dynamics. This is why thicker head gaskets are available.

 

Awesome thank you!