Club 80-90 Forums

Hi,
Just had cooling problems and believe I require a head gasket replacement.
I have read the Wiki and it occurred to me that a passing comment a couple of years back by a garage was possibly incorrect.
Wiki mentions the "three notch" gaskets depending on clearances. This triggered my memory of the comment made by this garage which was something around, " you have the right head gasket fitted"
Is this possible, when you have to complete an internal examination of the clearances to identify the correct thickness of head gasket?
Is there other indicators?
Or are there other external indicators to recognise the correct head gasket for the model and year of vehicle?
Regards
Graham

You have to measure the piston protrusion and select the gasket accordingly. Page 15.9 in the Bentley manual. People don't seem to bother doing it properly though and stick the 3 notch (thickest one) in without measuring. If it had a 3 notch to start with it will be correct to replace like for like - but who knows?

Just to add to what OBG said, you can see the notches on the edge of the installed gasket without removing the head.

If you already had a 3 notch gasket fitted then your garage would know that this thickness of gasket should work in any engine that is within running tolerances, and so that might explain their comment.

If you strip your engine and measuring the piston protrusion would allow you to fit a thinner gasket then you would gain slightly on the maximum compression possible, but a thicker gasket would also work, just with lower compression values.