[Vwdiesel] head gaskets

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/11/2008 4:21:01 AM Pacific Standard Time, 
mark at shepher.fsnet.co.uk writes:

> So if I reamed out the requisite holes, would I end up with a stronger 
> gasket, or the same gasket... My main concern is the oil supply hole on some 
> 
> of these replacement gaskets seem unneccessarily large.
> Does anyone know how much a gasket reduces in thickness under final torque 
> from initial  state?
> What figure is the figure sometimes quoted, initial, or final thickness?
> 

  Mark, 
  You could ream out the head bolt holes but not the oil return 
holes.  There's not enough material outboard of the holes (or at 
least the front one) to seal.  
  A larger oil pressure area isn't necessarily going to fail.  Most 
of the failures there are the rubber ridgy part seperates from 
the rest of the gasket.  Some of them use a metal piece to seal 
instead of the rubber part... I think.  I've never noticed the bigger 
ones to fail more than the smaller, in fact usually the smaller 
ones tend to come out kidney bean shaped as one side seperates. 
If I had to say I've seen one fail more than the other I'd say it 
was the smaller ones!
  I believe Bentley has the new AND compressed thickness or the 
amount of compression when tightened so subtract the difference.
I know I've calculated it up at some point and that's the only 
place I can think of other than possibly the torque sheet that 
comes with a new gasket and I don't think it's on that.
    Loren


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