Finding the REAL Head Gasket Thickness on your SBC (L31 Budget build Part 7) 

I have found that Keith black claimer pistons are .005 taller then stock gm pistons helping compression and they are very affordable for a street engine they work great.

Scat makes a 3.50" stroke crank as well. I would run one over turning a stock crank. Easy way to put the pistons 0.010" higher in the bore.

Awesome dude that just what I have to do, thanks

Just make sure your head and block are the correct finish and true/flat. I have used those same gaskets back in the 90's when they had a black rubberized coating. I still coated the head and deck with a thin coat of aluminum paint which keeps the areas the gasket does not cover from rusting also.

4" head gaskets come/ came down to 16 thou shim. GM, Detroit Gasket [generally genuine GM] and Felpro make them. They were hard to get for a period but I think enough people complained. These are only good for iron heads, but you can reuse them,, or even stack them. Flat tops should be .025 down the hole, 016 gasket+ 041 piston to head. With 2 valve relief pistons and 0=80 angle mill on some fuellies you can get around 11.5-1. Even 64cc chambers are just over 10-1. SBC with decent heads, fuellies etc still make decent power. Though better heads around these days. They also do the shims in 3 7/8 gaskets for 283 307 use. 400 too. And NEVER use 4" gaskets on 3 7/8 bores. You will not keep a headgasket in it. When the sales clown tells you they are not available beat him until he looks! I used these on a 350 road race engine for many years until I went to alloy heads. Though this was 80s and 90s. Last Chev I did was a decade ago and got 020 shim gaskets in Felpro

I brought proper steel shim 305 head gaskets from Long Beach swap years ago. 👍👌

As always, great info Pat! Thank you sir!

Don't forget to check the diameter of the fire ring. Most off the shelf headgaskets for a small block measure 4.100 if the standard bore size is 4.00 All that extra clearance means less compression. Now that I watched more of the video I see you took that into account.

I used 15 thou shim gasket with forged flat tops with vortec heads!

Cool video

Compression is worth the effort calculate, check and double check

Thanks Pat.good video!

The Mahle 1264MHP are graphite and .026 thick with a 4.125 bore. I've used them on alot of builds. Never a problem.

Awesome man!

Thanks for the tip

Nice

Vortec does have 200 psi Compression

Thanks for the vortec head video. Have you thought about running a 1 inch carb spacer? Because you’re running a dual plane intake

Awesome video! Great tip on when not to spray the head gasket. Any precautions to take when running this thinner gasket?

👍👍👍

Very good info. Missed a couple videos so was catching up and noticed you were Dino testing a t Nick’s, very cool. Are you Canadian?

I've kinda built Dane kind of year engine but I'm not getting any spark

With the Felpro shim gaskets - coated- would there be any benefit from removing the coating with brake clean and then spraying them several coats of copper spray?

I wonder if the 5746 would compress more with a few heat cycles?

I’m curious on how the lt4 with the .525 lift is outside of the .040 clearance you prefer with the vortec head mods when it’s only .550 with the setup you are talking about. I’m sure I’m missing something and I’m not being a smart a either. I have a setup I’m wanting to try with about the same numbers. This gives me hope it’ll work.

Did you end up pinning the studs or threaded in rocker studs?

Head gasket bore diameter is also a factor, you only need about. 010 bigger than the bore, just enough to provide clearance

How much power difference do you think that will help going from 8.9 to 9.3?? Thanks for the videos!!

What thermostat did u use on the intake

Hey Pat, any chance you could share the self aligned rocker part numbers? Was just going to run the existing stamped set, but with them having 130K miles, I'm thinking not. Thanks!

I'm running 1094 would be the better hi tach red brush onto gaskets let them sit two days. Or not

Do you have any info on good headers? I’m going to be getting to that stage here soon and can’t seem to find good info on what can be bolted on. Will the standard TBI headers work? Or are they different? Figured you’re the man to ask directly. Thanks for the content btw

Sooooo... I've got a question for you and since I cant message you directly, I'll ask you here. I have a nice little 350 build with a static 9.98 to 1 compression and dynamic of 8.35 to 1 compression (.042" quench area and aluminum heads). Here in Tennessee, the average "premium" fuel is 91 octane which should work just fine with my combo at 35 - 36 degrees of total timing. Question is, how can I use 87 octane for normal cruising? Simply reduce total timing? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jim

I’m curious as to how high of a compression you can get out of a 350 vortec.

Did you have the block decked? Or how did you clean the head surface

Bore diameter also important.....

Can you give me a part number for timing chain and cover for my l31 thanks

Why didnt you 0 deck block

I thought Vortec heads were all 58cc?

Would it b ideal to mill the block to zero deck?