Stealth Head Gasket Overhang

Hi
I have some stealth heads that 440 source won't replace [3years unused]
I've tried cometic,felpro1039, 8519PT-1,FS7891-11 and a 4.5 bore space and still get overhang in the chambers.
Do you think I would be able to use a copper gasket and grind the overhang off. I'm at a loss what to do here. Surely others must have had this problem too This is for a street car only. Thanks for looking

brett, come & see me. i've got a few sets of used copper & cometic gaskets we can grind so you can make a pattern for making some copper gaskets. i had to grind the copper gaskets i used to use on my SR heads, i'm sure we can do something similar to your stealths.
Reb.

Just a thought, how about having the chambers welded up (tig), blend the chambers & surface the heads... I know it isn't ideal but after reworking them you could run whatever head gaskets you pulled off the shelf...

The Fel-Pro 8519PT has about a 4.5" bore opening, and it fits on my old set of stealth heads, but it is a close fit. I hear the new castings have smaller chambers (80cc?) and this may not be a problem with the new castings?
You may be able to mill the head a bit to reduce the chamber diameter?

Take the gasket you have, scribe out where it needs to be, send it to cometic and you'll have a custom gasket back in about week and a half.
Also it only adds about 25 percent to the counter cost, and they'll store the program for you.

Mine are the first sets also.I tried fitting the 19s and they fit fine.I opted for the FelPro marine gaskets.Fit perfect and have been on for 3 years.No problems.They were like 40 bucks each.Rocky

how much overhang is there? most of what guys were talking about before was so slight,, like you could barely feel it running your finger across the chamber and past the gasket.

if its more than .025-.030 overhang then id do something about it,, other than that put the thing together

Hi Paul, small world and thx for the offer. Just discovered 3 places in akld that do custom ones.As i want to sell these i might go this way.

Sending anything to cometic is not an option as rebel and i both live downunder

Jeff, the overhang is more than slight.

thx

We have seen gaskets that hang in the chamber burn and cause piston and cylinder wall damage,heck I've seen gaskets that don't hang but are real close burn causing deck and head damage.There is a reason all the gasket companys set the gasket bore bigger to eliminate any issues.A gasket is not intended to be in the combustion chamber burn or ignition area.

What BG sez. And I wouldn't use anything but a composite head gasket on an aluminum head/iron block application, due to the different rates of expansion & contraction, but that's just me.

ive never seen a gasket overhang cause bore or piston damage,, ive seen alot of blown out head gaskets with no bore effect at all,, or piston unless it was lean and lifted a ring land. usually gaskets burn out from lifting the head,, blows the gasket and the combustion goes out the gasket where its blown and burns everything in its path.

if you have gasket overhang that is slight, no big deal,, if its a good amount then the fire ring of the gasket wont be loaded by the head and it will blow right away. if it was a 900hp motor i wouldnt allow any overhang past the head, unless its a cometic, since the fire ring on those is set back from the bore opening. for most 600hp motors im sure some slight overhang,, .020 or so is no big deal,, but the gasket should never overhang the bore on the block.

ive used a few sets on motors that had "this issue" with a std fel pro,, made 600 and then went on to run 5000 miles or so,, with no issues

there is another post where guys say which rol gasket they used with no issues,, so maybe give them a try.

The lastest: Rebels got a couple of contacts for welding and machining, at the right price it looks, so i think we'll go that way and eliminate the whole choice thing

thx

modencylinder the overhang was quite severe

I have an early set of heads on my car. Used ROL HG31130HT head gaskets. 4 years and no problems

yeah i tried quite a few different sets, i've posted ab out the aftermath today on here under "welding ali heads"

How bout some pics showing the gasket on the head surface? just a thought that way people can see instead of quessing.

i used a set of stealths that had barely any overhang- you could barely feel it, and they showed signs of leakage. fortunately, the heads broke into pieces before the leakage became an issue. too, the leakage may have been a result of a loss of clamping force caused by the heads falling into pieces. lol.