muddy4x4xfar Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 hi all . when changing a head gasket on a 200 or 300 what hole head gasket should i use? whats the differences?? cheers all chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Challo Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Hi, the holes refer to the thickness of the gasket. Technically you are supposed to measure protrusion of pistons from the block using a dti gauge. If you don't have access to one of these and you are leaving the pistons in situ and not having the head skimmed, I would replace with the same thickness of gasket. Or replace like with like. Hope this helps, Chris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tetsu0san Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 If you are not skimming the head then you should put on the original holed gasket. 1 hole is the thinnest, 2 slightly thicker, 3 thicker again and no hole is even thicker. If you are skimming the head (which is advisable) then put on a 1 hole bigger gasket, depending on how much is taken off. But in all honesty, as long as you put on a 3 hole gasket (or a no hole one) you should be OK. The difference in compression will be minimal. This is just my experience though. I am sure there are some calculations and methods that are more accurate that just my inane ramblings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt bristol Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 when I did my head gasket I just went for the thickest gasket, the truck still starts and runs fine, so the reduced compression is negligible as far as my experience Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Range Rover Blues Posted April 27, 2011 Share Posted April 27, 2011 Which is why of course LR went ot all the trouble of making them in 4 different thicknesses! Skimming the head makes no difference to piston protrusion and shouldn't make any difference to the head gasket thickness unless you have a valve seat "stand down" issue, that is the valve heads are no longer recesses enough. you can alter this though by cutting the valve seats a little. also, be careful, there were a number of gaskets hit the market a year or so ago that had the wromng number of holes in them. Most were 3 hole gaskets with only 1 hole stamped. If you didn't know you could wreck the engine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally V8 Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Which is why of course LR went ot all the trouble of making them in 4 different thicknesses! Skimming the head makes no difference to piston protrusion and shouldn't make any difference to the head gasket thickness unless you have a valve seat "stand down" issue, that is the valve heads are no longer recesses enough. you can alter this though by cutting the valve seats a little. also, be careful, there were a number of gaskets hit the market a year or so ago that had the wromng number of holes in them. Most were 3 hole gaskets with only 1 hole stamped. If you didn't know you could wreck the engine. Thank you for saving me the trouble of typing that - totally agree,read the other posts whilst eating my lunch and didnt have time to reply.Wrong info on the web often gets taken as gospel - such as the p38 "running lean at cruise" BS...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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