3 litre reinze head gasket's all the same?

[JamesO]

Just had a head gasket fail to seal on my 3 litre 8 valve, not the end of the world but a bit odd.
The Head and block are nice and true still, which is a relief.
One thing I did notice is there are some differences between the old gasket and the one that failed to seal.
The fire rings on the old one are 3mm wide on both sides.

The fire rings on the gasket that failed are 7mm wide on the block side and 4mm wide on the head side.

There is every chance it was caused by air pockets/localised overheating as it was a sod to bleed, although i've done a few of these, even re-using a head gasket in an emergancy without issue.

So, anybody know if there are different designs?

Oh and no boost was involved.

 

[TTM]

The standard gasket has same ring width on both sides, your other gasket with rings wider on the block side is a widefire.

I have both, will post pictures tonight if interested.

As far as I have found out, widefire headgaskets were designed to be used in conjunction with o-ringed blocks and won't seal as well as a standard hadgasket on a standard block.

 

[JamesO]

Ah that explains it, must have been a cock up with the supplier as it came as part of a standard cylinder head seal kit.
Will give them a bell, cheers for that.

 

[GPF]

ORIGINAL: TTM

The standard gasket has same ring width on both sides, your other gasket with rings wider on the block side is a widefire.

I have both, will post pictures tonight if interested.

As far as I have found out, widefire headgaskets were designed to be used in conjunction with o-ringed blocks and won't seal as well as a standard hadgasket on a standard block.

Hi Thom,

I don't *think* this is correct, or at least this certainly was not the case in the past.

I've had a widefire (std block) for 5 or 6 years now and it seals absolutely fine.

Now you've made me say that I'd better go and find some wood to touch.....[8|]

 

[DivineE]

I noticed this, there is a standard head gasket for the 3.0 with wider fire rings as you describe and one with thinner rings. They were both apparently standard order, the only difference was the make of the original supplier. I forget what that was now.

Did they ever produce an official wide fire gasket for the 104mm block?

 

[TTM]

I heard somewhere there was a headgasket with a specific part number mentioned in the 968 turbo S/RS parts list.

Good to know yours is holding fine Graham, not sure where I heard about this o-ringed block thingy...[8|]

 

[Diver944]

I've not heard of an issue with the widefire gasket and standard head, but with the Cometic gasket I have heard of sealing issues if the deck and head are not 100% flat