[Mace1971]

I'm in the midst of replacing my mild Edelbrock Performer-Plus cam (#2157) with a Crower 60919 (041) cam and Rhoads V-Max lifters. The engine is in fine shape and I'm simply trying to wake it up a bit with the new cam and, since I'm working alone, the engine is staying in the car. My initial plan was to leave the heads on; however, I did some looking with my handy-dandy borescope and spotted these crescent-shaped pits on the #7 piston that appear to have been caused by something having entered the cylinder at some point.



BTW, that long curved line is not a crack but simply a carbon track. None of the other cylinders have these pits, there's nothing left bouncing around in there, compression is equal to the rest of the cylinders and there's no cylinder-wall scoring or signs of oil usage so I was just going to leave this alone; however, the more I think about it the more I'm leaning toward pulling the driver's side head. This gives me the chance to get a good visual on the valves plus check deck height and measure the actual CC. I have A/C and I don't really want to pull the passenger side head so the questions end up being about the head gasket. Based on the few records I have from PO's I think the gaskets are probably regular Fel-Pro so 1) are these typically reusable or will I need to replace it? 2) If I need to replace it are they marked clearly enough that I can make sure I replace the gasket with the same part? I'd hate to pull it all down and then find I have to pull the passenger side just to make sure I have the same gasket thickness on both sides. Am I missing anything else?

[steve25]

The regular flew pro head gasket will be marked 8515 in Orange , the Hi PO gasket is marked 1016, and they both crush down to the same spec!

[Navy Horn 16]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[74Grandville]

Originally Posted by Navy Horn 16

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Perform a leak down test and call it good.


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[HWYSTR455]

I'm on board with that, leak down should be fine. That would prevent having to pull the head.

As for reusable head gaskets, no, IMO the FelPro head gaskets are not reusable, only MLS ones are (for the most part). The FelPro gaskets are not that expensive anyway, and believe they are available in singles.

With that said, again, IMO, if you pull one head, you might as well pull both, and have them both checked. If the leak down fails, or is unacceptable, you would probably want to do both heads at the same time. It's a line in the sand kind of thing, not to mention it's prudent to do so.

.

[STEELCITYFIREBIRD]

260-1025 complete FelPro gasket, seal set, less than $60 usually.
2-#8515 gaskets included
I'd pull both too, when I was this close.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by Navy Horn 16

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

What ever it ate, it's done spit it out. So I'ld just run it if everything has been doing OK.

If you did pull a head to check deck height and CC...what would you or could you do about it....other than future plans.

And I have reused felpro head gaskets, if nothing tears off or pulls apart when you lift the head and gasket. Just coat it good with copper head gasket spray.

FWIW all you need is a bunch of pieces of wire in different diameters to check deck height or quinch with the head on the engine. Just slide it in the spark plug hole and turn the engine by hand. Go for pinch/no pinch. And if you know the compessed thickness of your head gasket...then do the math to see how far the piston is in the hole. Don't forget piston rock when you do this.

[JLMounce]

Originally Posted by steve25

The regular flew pro head gasket will be marked 8515 in Orange , the Hi PO gasket is marked 1016, and they both crush down to the same spec!

I don't believe this is the case. The 8518 listed through summit has a crush height of .045 while the 1016 that I just installed has a crush height of .038

Cross referencing from Fel-Pro's site lists the thickness of the 8518 at .0415-.048 and the thickness of the 1016 as .039.

If OP does remove the head he needs to replace it with the same gasket he removed.

I'm with everyone else though, given that there's not symptoms of a problem and compression checks out, I'd run the leakdown and if that comes out good, leave it.

OP I am running the same pistons in my 455 and the deck height came out to be an average of .008 across the pistons. The deck was not 100% flat. If your engine was a basic rebuild in the past, you're probably around that figure, maybe a little less if the deck has bee surfaced multiple times.

[lust4speed]

Whatever it was, it was very small and left quickly.

[steve25]

Yup, I had the wrong recall on that gasket spec , the difference would work out to a 1.9 CC difference between both gaskets !

[Mace1971]

Thanks for the input guys, I think you've talked me back from the cliff. I'm going to leave the head alone because the juice just isn't worth the squeeze here. I've got a theory that there is a .25 probability of any given fastener failing when trying to remove it and a 1.0 probability that the failed fastener will be the most difficult to access. It's just a theory right now but that's pretty much the failure rate I get so if were to hold true this time I know I'd shear a header bolt! I am going to do the leak-down test and try Quick-silver's suggestion of using different wires to estimate quench.