Screaming Eagle Head Gaskets

[bullelkklr]

I am porting and polishing my heads and wanted to give it a little bit more compression. I took .030 off the heads and wanted another .020 - .030. I bought a screaming eagle gasket set from the local steeler in Anchorage.

I should have ordered a set of James - this set of gaskets are not equal to the quality that I saw from my last set of James gaskets.

So - let's get to the question. The SE head gaskets have 4 pieces of metal riveted together. 3 thin stamped gaskets and 1 thicker flat plate. I drilled the rivets and tossed the thicker flat plate, put the three remaining gaskets to gether in the same order as they were and torqued the heads down.

Am I going to smoke the head gaskets when I start her up?

[wreckerman]

well they do make head gaskets in different thickness, also have you checked for clearance, I have not tried what you are doing I have had heads shaved and decked , and I have taken .30 off for more compression.but have never pushed it any further , I would think if your clearance is ok , then you have a 50/50 chance of the head gasket holding up

[coolhawg6622]

Push the button................................and let us know...

[bullelkklr]

You can scrape about 80K off of an evo. I have tried to go 70 with very good results. I am in Alaska now and parts are hard to come by - I should have ordered them on-line.

My evo has been bored, and whoever bored it kinda left out the crank, but they did put a big bore piston on the stock rods - so I have plenty of decking (.250" below the top of the cylinder)....no chance in hitting a valve.

She ran good before - hoping she runs better now. But it won't if the head gaskets blow out on me.....OUCH.

[Wide]

Evos are pretty tough

As long as your machining is spot on you should be good

bad machining is the root to most s

[bullelkklr]

Guess I will find out. My "machining" was done with 80 grit wet/dry then 220 wet/dry. One is as good as I can get it, the other I could have gotten better. I am about +or- .0025 on the bad one...Next time I will pay the 85$ per head to have them turned.

Wide - so have you really tried removing the inner metal plate on the screaming buzzard head gaskets?

As long as it squished tightly and evenly, I am hoping that it holds...if not - well it is about 3-4 weeks here from riding time - if we get some sunshine...So, I can fix her up again.

Thanks Guys!

I'll let you know when I pull the trigger if it worked.

[elliottharley]

my evo is getting worked on now - I sent the heads off for port and polished, I bought a cometic gasket....local HD shop claims it gets great reviews.

/e

[bullelkklr]

I have also heard good things about cometic, but no personal experience.

O well - if she blows, it is only a couple hours labor to put another one it. Weeks till weather is fair enough for me to ride here in anchorage...would be nice to get the shop cleaned up tho.

I will let you know how she goes.

I am no professional by any means - but I am hoping to see improvements off my hand port and polish job....I am not going to gain much in CR though I am afraid....so this should be a good test of a port and polish without bumping the CR....I think that the real gains are had by the CR increase - - but cleaning up that intake so it is smooth when it hits the valve seat can't hurt any.

[bullelkklr]

Update:

Static CR went from 90psi to 140psi. After warm up I picked up the RPM and the head gaskets did not hold. Will get new and try again. Anxious to see the insides.

Running much leaner now. Had lots of fire out the exhaust and then out the head gaskets....cool stuff.

Even with the blown head gaskets she sounded REAL GOOD - can't wait to see what she ends up like.

So - who has real head gaskets? Going to try a thin Cometic....I think.

[CoolMaker]

Cometic gaskets are very good. When you take the heads back off, check with a straight edge to make sure they don't have any low spots.