Head Gaskets stupid question...

Mark,

Did you check to see if there was a hole in the head gaskets about 1" from the rear edge and in a bit from the valley side to match a hole in the block/head?

Give me a call

B.G.

I don't remember. I may have a photo of only one side (passenger side) with the gasket placed but no head on top.

When I replaced my heads, I luckily took pictures of the gaskets sitting on the heads without the heads yet installed. I ran into strange metallic sounding knocking that sounded like they were coming from the water pump. George Pence diagnosed it as backwards head gaskets and water boiling in the heads. I did not have any signs of overheating but it turned out that George was correct (again). One of my pictures showed a backward gasket. I now photo every job step by step.

If I am not mistaken (as my wife says that I so often am ) the gaskets say "front". They don't say up or down.
Since they are both the same gasket one will be upside down in relation to the other.

This is to keep the steam holes in the correct relationship to the front of the block.

Whew. You give good advice Dennis, and I wish I had followed it here, as I could be less worried if I had shot EVERY step.

Now that I have reviewed the photos I DID take, and remembering what I did, I am pretty sure that AS LONG AS THE SAME GASKET IS USED FOR BOTH SIDES (and I'd still like an expert response on that...) all is fine and my overheating is not caused by incorrect gasket placement. The two square cooling passages at the top, front of the block (where Dennis circled in red) will allow flow through to the heads with the gasket placed as I did. Since the side I didn't shoot with the gasket in place had the gasket flipped over, the same hole would also be at the front, and now I don't need to spend hours re-doing it all.

Thanks for the response, but if anyone can confirm my still-outstanding question, then those who follow will be sure to get it right.

EDIT: Thanks Doug. You responded AS I was typing this.

Thanks!

Mark

...Yes! I also used the FelPro Gaskets, and Both are exactly the same. The 'FRONTS' go to the front and ONE IS 'Up-Side-Down' compared to the Other...

OK, Now you gys are getting me nervous,

I just put my Edelbrock heads on last night using FelPro gaskets. I made sure that the word "Front" was facing the front. I did not look at the water passage, I just made sure that "Front" was front. The thing is, is that "Front was up on both heads. This must mean that "Front" was placed on both sides of the gasket. Anyway, I did take pictures of each head gasket on the block but only to prove that "Front" was front. So should the water pasage be open on the front of the block for each head like the picture Mark posted?

Thanks

With my aging mind, its good to have photos to go back and confirm things. In my case, I knew from the photos that I had to pull the head. Wouldn't it have been a bitch to pull the head and the gasket was on correctly?!

quote:

Originally posted by 74LQQKR:
So should the water pasage be open on the front of the block for each head like the picture Mark posted?

Yes, it would seem so. The alternative would be bad.

quote:

Originally posted by 4NFORD:
Wouldn't it have been a bitch to pull the head and the gasket was on correctly?!

Yes, unless it was the passenger side head, in which case it would be a "f$#@!!*'n bitch".

quote:

Originally posted by Mark:
Mark what is hot 220 230?

If you are a frog, either. In my case, the car was running 180 on days like that last year. One conclusion I'm coming to (thanks to various input and advice) is that I might have a timing advance problem which may be aggravating the heating issue.