Head gasket questions

[1953]

Ok have a 53 Chevy 3600 235 engine new head gasket and engine gasket set, getting ready to put new head gasket on and the shop manual calls for cylinder head guide pins witch idk what there talking about, makes sense to guide the head down on to the gasket what can I use as guide pins or are they readily available threw a vendor, second question thick copper felpro head gasket should I use sealer if so what's the recommended type of sealer used

[Speedbumpauto]

Should be a 1/4 guide(locating) pin in each end of the block. Holes in the gasket and head will make it all line up perfectly during assembly. Put the head gasket on dry/clean.

[1953]

I've established there isn't any guide pins or anything not sure what going on here

[mr48chev]

They most likely got pulled out either by sticking in the head or by someone cleaning up the top of the block. They have to be pulled to use most boring bars if the engine was bored. You can make your own easily enough by cutting a couple of 1/4 inch bolts off so you have a couple of pieces about 1/2 or so inches long. They locate the head along with locating the gasket. There should be a hole in each end of the block or close to it for the pin that matches a hole in the gasket and matches a similar blind hole in the head. I'd check the depth of the holes and thickness of the gasket so I didn't make the pins too long.

[1953]

Yes and that's what I'm doing great it some bolts to fabricate some

[dwcsr]

You can use a 5/16 x 5/8 rod or get some at the parts house

MR Gasket Part # 4375

[1953]

Yes what I did actually went to home depot hot threaded rod and made guides

[1953]

I really want to know is putting the thick copper gasket with no sealer the way to do it ? I've read numerous threads online and some say yes some say no

[Speedbumpauto]

And that's what you'll get here. I've known guys who slather goo on every gasket on an engine. I can see it on some paper gaskets and cork, if you do it right but, IMO, head gaskets are dry. If you read the info from the gasket people they mostly say the same, especially on a composition or sandwich gasket. If you get twitchy, you could spray a THIN coat of copper coat on the gasket before installing. I've heard of that and silver spray paint used on steel shim gaskets for high compression competition engines. Probably couldn't hurt.

[1953]

I went ahead and put it on clean and dry torqued the bolts 30 60 then 90 ft lbs will do a re torque when hot and ran of 95 ft. Lbs surface was cleaned to perfect I didn't have them resurfaced didnt see the need to no warping checked the levelness, didn't port and polish the head b it was cleaned and valves and seats was done all in all will do a test here soon and hope all goes well

[mr48chev]

I've used both copper coat and silver/alumuminum paint on head gaskets before when using the copper gaskets.

Back years ago guys ran thicker gaskets to either compensate for a head that wasn't perfectly straight or to lower the compression and used thinner gaskets to raise compression a tad.

Personally I'd just run the Felpro blue head gaskets and be done with it unless I was building a race motor to run at Bonneville or the dry lakes. Then I might get into special gaskets to meet a desired compression ratio.