[68azbird]

Did you put a straight edge on the deck of that block yet?

[thews]

Originally Posted by 68azbird

Did you put a straight edge on the deck of that block yet?

Not yet... this weekend if I have time.

[lust4speed]

OK, wasn't expecting to see the bearing in such good shape. Reaching at straws here, but I guess if there was a bad detonation event it had to happen just before the head gasket blew, and there wasn't enough of repeat cycle to wear and hammer away the Babbitt? At this point, that's just a WAG.

[Squidward]

My guess: How sure are you that the gasket wasn't marginally deformed at install? It might just be poor production QA that wasn't noticed.

[thews]

Originally Posted by Squidward

My guess: How sure are you that the gasket wasn't marginally deformed at install? It might just be poor production QA that wasn't noticed.

I hope so. The crux of all the "what if" scenarios turn out the best for me if the head and block aren't warped. If they had used a 350 gasket, this wouldn't have happened. I'm going with the orange head gaskets... thanks to whoever posted they had noticed a lot of these orange gaskets when tearing them down (presumably from the factory).

As long as these orange gaskets hold, I'm fairly confident there's also a 0.5 CR boost. The 4 spaces on the pistons tops don't come close to the surface area given up by using the 400 gaskets on a 350. I know they crush and I don't know how much, but I'll still bet the extra cc's given up with that huge lip when using a 400 gasket is more than the relief in the pistons.

Thanks again for the input... I'm out of my league here in what to do next calling all the shots (I'd rather dump it off in a machine shop and pick it up when it's done).

[Squidward]

I am using the Fel-pro gaskets in my current 350, so far so good. After ordering 3 sets of gaskets specified for a "350", I ended up with 3 sets that were about identical to the universal Fel-pro gasket.

[thews]

Originally Posted by Squidward

I am using the Fel-pro gaskets in my current 350, so far so good. After ordering 3 sets of gaskets specified for a "350", I ended up with 3 sets that were about identical to the universal Fel-pro gasket.

Do you have a pic of the Fel-pro gasket you used?

Here's a pic of the Victor Reinz gaskets I received today (Part # 3401VC):


There's an obvious egg shaped hole in the 350 gaskets vs. the 400 (Fel-Pro gasket pictured in the center).

[Will]

Where'd you get those VR gaskets?

[Squidward]

Side to side, you can see that the coolant passage holes in the FP are GIANT compared to the others. Seems like it would make failure easier.

[thews]

Originally Posted by Will

Where'd you get those VR gaskets?

$100 on eBay.

[Shiny]

The distortion of the FelPro gasket at the location of the leak is hard to understand. I don't see how it could move like that if clamped by the head? Wondering if the gasket was not being compressed well for some reason (warped, head bolts bottomed, FP gasket relaxed ???)?

Agree with Squidward the big hole for the coolant and resulting narrow gap to combustion chamber just looks weak. Do 400 motors leak at this same location with those same gaskets?

[PontGuy]

I used the Felpro 400 gaskets on my 350's for years and never had a problem like that. Actually I never had a head gasket fail on any of my Pontiacs regardless of the combination. Something odd there.

In this case since the heads are original to the 350 then the 350 gaskets should be best. But while reading along I've had a question in the back of my mind. If using early 400 heads how would the 350 gaskets match up to the 400 head chambers? The sealing bead should be compressed between the head and the top of the block all the way around to get a good seal. Is the shape of the sealing surface the same for all of the 350/400 heads out there? Seems like I remember the 400 gaskets being pretty close to the edge on 400 heads.