Hi guys i have been reading though some of the old post regarding head gaskets and i see that you both say that its better to replace the engine or do a major strip down rather than do the gaskets if its been over heating. Now im looking to take my engine out for other work and i was thinking of doing the headgaskets while its out. I have no over heating problems at the moment and have not had any since i have had the car and as far as i know its not been done before.

 

My question is am i better to leave alone or will it be ok to do with out having to strip the engine down any further than the head gaskets?

 

Thanks dave

if it aint broke dont fix it!!!

this is true! but if im going to be uping the power at bit i want the engine to be stronger plus i dont want to do all the work i have planned only to end up having to rebuild the engine in a couple of months

head gasket isn't that hard to change, just make sure you get the correct one for an uprated engine, i see no harm in changing it as a matter of course if thats what you want to do, its just a case of getting the plenum off, cam belt covers off, aux belts, and removing the lower crank pulley and lower cam cover, removing the timing belt, taking the cam covers off and removing the head bolts, it would be advisable to use new head bolts though, i know some people say you can use the old ones, but they do get a bit of stretch, just make sure to bolt them up in the correct pattern when you put them back on, and to the correct torque settings.

 

While your there you may as well change as much as you can like the cam-belt, tensioner and idler pulleys, just remember to get your heads skimmed though for the new gasket

Personally I would stick a gasket set in it if you will be hitting higher numbers get a cometic one in there. That way you have some future proofing in there...