Does anyone have part #s for steel shim style head gaskets that will fit a SB 400 with a 4.165 bore?? I would prefer something I can simply bolt on with a thickness somewhere between .015-.022. I need this thickness to get my quench down to the .035-.045 dimension. I am sure others have had this same situation come up.
Tom

Im sure if you search all the major gasket makers like Mr. Gasket, Fel-Pro, or Milodon, you will find what you are looking for. The downside to these gaskets is that if you dont have a very level deck or heads, they wont seal properly, so be cautious. Heres a link to Mr Gaskets online catalog

http://www.mrgasket.com/pdf/Gaskets.pdf

I ran .022" steel shim headgaskets on my 406 for quite a while..

I placed the shims on my bare block and then reached up inside a scribed a line around the bores and then took my 1/4" drill and stones and relieved the gaskets where needed so they didn't overhang the chamber too much..

Then painted them up real good with either Copper-Cote or aluminum paint and torqued them down about three or four times after heating my motor up once ot twice..

Worked real good for me.

Oh, don't forget to drill the steam holes in the shims.... pdq67

Sik68.....checked Mr. Gasket and several others but didn't come up with anything there that would be a direct bolt on.

pdq67.....wasn't ignoring your suggestion from my other thread just was hoping maybe someone else had found a thin head gasket that would be a bolt on. Sealing should not be a problem as I had the block decked this year and the heads had a cleanup cut last season so everything should be good and flat. I was really hoping there was a direct bolt on gasket for this application. I fact I find it kind of hard to believe there os one out there somewhere. Thx for the suggestions!

Tom

What about soft copper head gaskets?? DO all of them require O-rings in the block or can the be used sucessfully without O-rings??? Might be another option to look at.

Tom

No, they are now being made with a stencil of sealer around all the openings like regular headgaskets b/c I saw them at SEMA last Nov.

But sorry, dobn't remember who is making them... I was going to grab one of their flyers, but they were out.. pdq67

pdq67...found some through Competition Products. They are made by a company called Flatout Race Gaskets. The downside is they only offer an .040 x 4.1750 version that would work in my case and a they are $100 for a pair. They won't help any as they are same thickness as what I have and I need to get down to the .020 thick range in order to effect any change on the quench.

If I use the .041 FelPro's and get a quench of .065 should I be expecting detonation problems or do you think the extra quench is not worth worrying about that much??? If I go to a thinner gasket that will raise my compression more my current 11.3:1 ratio. Makes me wonder if the increase in compression wouldn't put me in the same place as leaving the compression lower with a slightly largere quench?? Not sure what to do at this point :confused: . Any more thoughts on this?
Tom

According to the DCR calculator my compression w/ an .022 x 4.165 bore gasket would jump from 11.3 to almost 11.87.