Engine expansion when hot?

[eschaider]

Glad you've found a working solution, Steve. Even with the dissimilar growth rates of the different materials, if the gasket air gap that Tottuga was encouraging you to measure was square top to bottom the differences in growth would not be enough to expose an intake port.

That said, repeated heating and cooling cycles could possibly deteriorate the quality of the seal the gasket had with either or both the head and manifold. On heads and manifolds that have been port matched you will have reduced margin around each port for sealing which will provide increased opportunity for a gasket sealing failure. The easiest fix for this problem is to glue the gasket to both surfaces at assembly. I believe Brent Lykins suggested this in another thread. It does make disassembly a messier event but it also makes for a reliable gasket seal.


Ed