Resurfacing head for metal head gasket

Jay Stewart jay@nx2k.com
Sun, 8 Dec 2002 11:19:03 -0600


>I recently had a head resurfaced for use with a metal
>head gasket....and now the engine leaks

Ideally you would want both the block and the head to have been
resurfaced. If you feel tooling marks then that is not good, you want a
mirror smooth finish on both sides. We have found that there is a mopar
PN for a gasket sealer meant especially for mls headgaskets, which works
better than the permatex stuff: Mopar P/N 04318035. Very good stuff, and
not too expensive. I also would highly recommend the use of ARP head
studs with a MLS gasket. They like torque, and lots of it.

Also, MLS headgaskets usually aren't the same thickness as stock. Make
sure you know how much your block is decked, head shaved, and the
compressed thickness of your headgasket of choice. Changing this will
change cam timing, and you will need to correct for this. Ideally you
would have the thicker MLS HG work out to be the same height as the
material that you removed, but this isn't always easy.

-Jay