OK, no more felpro 1000s for me! I was gonna try the felpro blue HG or I have a set of stock GM HG. I did NOT want to o-ring but if I have to I will. What HG do you guys run with head studed GN1s?
WOW! Upon further inspection, Both sides were gone! Compression check showed only one cyl #4 bad 85#. You wouldn't believe how good the car ran. I can't wait to fix, with some good gaskets. Anyone using victor 3797s
I would use the HG that Champion recommends in their paperwork that comes with the GN1s. The gasket they recommend has a copper fire ring. This copper ring prevents the heads from getting crushed thus having to be milled if you ever have to remove them. The copper is softer than the Aluminum.
If you use a stock HG(Victor), you will indent the head, the steel ring will make an impression in the head. If you have to remove the head for any reason, you will have to mill the head so get that flat surface for sealing purposes.
I would also o-ring the head, NOT receiver grooves. The o-ring is the mod you do with the "piano wire" which helps prevent the HG from shifting if you ever lift a head under boost conditions but yet lets it "pop" to prevent further bottom end damage if you detonate
I have a set of stock GMs that Jack C gave me with the heads. I'll try that and If that doesn't work, over the winter I'll send them to Dave for his "magic" trick. Thanks alot for the help guys!!!
Always had good luck with felpro lockwires. If that doesn't work for ya you can have the heads machined for o-rings, to back up the gaskets fire ring. In some extreme cases I have machined the block for an o-ring, put a receiver groove in the heads to match,
and run solid copper gaskets. This causes the gasket to be pushed into the head for the ultimate seal.
DO NOT RUN SOLID COPPER GASKETS WITHOUT SOME TYPE OF WIRE!!!!
I'm using ARP head studs & exhaust bolts. ATR copper header gaskets, they leak a little, I might just try some high temp silicone. I have ATR stainless headers and if the are staight I'm just using the silicone and trying that. The intake gasket is a felpro blue intake, I forget the #. 90366 or something like that. I'll get the number up here later today.
Well the bad news is that if you're making enough cyl pressure (for whatever reason) that the combustion gas is pushing past the fire ring, well the stock gaskets are just going to leave a much bigger mess to try and clean up after IMO they can't stop that from happening any more than FP 1000's, 1026's, 1006's or copper gaskets. Once it pushes past the stock gasket flake crap gets everywhere though. Oil pump pickup screen, oil galleries, oil cooler, everywhere. The real solution IMO is to prevent the over pressure condition from happening in the 1st place if you can.
Sometimes with GN1's the combustion chamber has been relieved or matched to a round fire ring, to the point where the stock gasket odd shaped fire ring will overhang past the chamber edges too.