Which head gasket did you use? 200tdi

[bluespanner]

I measured my piston protrusion with feeler gagues today and it is 0.53mm. According to haynes, this means I need a 1 notch gasket, ie the thinnest. Are these common? And what is the consequences of using too thin a gasket? Surely the valve to piston tolerance arent that tight, seeing as the difference between a 1 and a 3 notch gasket is .2 mm?

Cheers,

Roly

[pist0nbr0ke]

Afternoon Roly,

What was the gasket that came off? How many notches? I was told that most gaskets fitted were the 3 notch, someone on here may correct me on that!

I had the head skimed as you never get a flat head really! it has been known to fit the head back on without skimming but generally leads to blowing again soon.

As i had the head skimed i put in the 4 notch gasket to compensate.

Cheers

Neil

[jcwcooper]

Ive had two 200tdi's and both have been 3 notch gaskets. I was also told by a freind who works at LR that the service people always used 3 notch gaskets too when replacing one.

Dave.

[bluespanner]

What affect would using the thicker gasket have on compression ratios?

Hmm I ommited to think about the head skim. And it has been. Hmm.

[Les Henson]

I doubt very much that there will any noticeable difference by using the next notch up - the difference is only 10th of a millimetre. If you have had a head skim, then it's possible that quite a bit of material has been removed, in which case the piston protrusion would be the same if you were using the old pistons, but the valve stand down may be greatly reduced. This is why the piston protrusion and valve stand down should be checked - the protrusion for the correct thickness head gasket, and the valve stand down to maintain valve clearance. You may think that just using the next thickness head gasket will be fine, but it's possible that this isn't enough for the work you have/had done to the engine. It doesn't take much time or effort to check protrusion or stand down and it could save you a lot of grief/wasted money.

Les.

[bluespanner]

I have piston protrusion of 0.53mm. Where it gets weird is that the head is an unknown entity to me, other than I know it has been skimmed. how many times i do not know.

[Les Henson]

You measure the thickness of the head between the rocker cover gasket face and the head gasket face. I can't remember what it should be as standard, but this is how you determine how much has been removed in the past.

Les.

[gruntus]

I read before (I am fairly sure on this forum) that the valve faces to cylinder head face have to be a particular clearance and obviously if the head is skimmed should be checked.

Also that if a lot of material is removed and hence the valve seat/head face gap isnt enough then the valve seats can be recut (the valves would then sit further inside the head) to give sufficient clearance.

Incidentally how did you measure the piston protrusion? Les has a great thread on checking this.

With regard to head gaskets and compression (this is my own personal opinion) I would go for the same thickness you took off (or greater if needed) rather than going thinner. Its not a performance engine and being turbocharged may possibly stress it more than it needs to be with a higher compression ratio.

From my petrol head days I remember skimming the head on normally aspirated petrol engines gave an increase in compression ratio to gain more power from the engine but that turbod (petrol) cars had to have a lower compression ratio to allow for the larger mass that the turbo charger produced without blowing head gaskets.

If you feel it isnt powerfull enough once its rebuilt, fueling and adding more boost (and larger intercooler) is quite a common upgrade but thats another one for the experts to advise on.

HTH

Cheers

Grant

[bluespanner]

i removed a 3 notch but that was with a different block and pistons. I used a feeler gague and steel rule to measure protrusion. I think you guys are right, i should use the same as what came off.