Hi Eddie the Grouch, in most cases the metal gaskets are multi directions, except where when alignment is concerned. On some of the gaskets, they can only go on one way.
My question is why on earth would you ever need to change the head? I've been doing Refrigeration since 1984 and have never seen or heard of a head going bad.
Great question! A few scenarios that would make one need to change a head, 1) the discharge valve mounts onto the center head, the threads get stripped or it gets cracked from not lining up properly. 2) There are times that the one that was in stock at the supplier did not have the correct center head configuration, but the compressor replacement was critical and the customer cannot wait to get the correct configuration. Finally, the model number on the tag is either wrong or not very legible, the customer gets the compressor to the job and realizes that the head is wrong, for safety reasons, we thought it would be a good video to show that you cannot just spin the head and will need to swap it from the old compressor.