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V6 Head Gaskets

srbaker

Donation Time
After a 2 year hiatus I have gotten back to working on the motor. I was working on the heads today, drilling the cooling holes and looking at plugging the EGR holes. Using the head gaskets to mark the holes for drilling I thought they looked a little odd. I had kept the old gaskets when I tore the motor down so put them side by side. The Fel-Pro gaskets from the engine kit seem to be missing a lot of cooling port openings compared to the set I took off. Has anyone used the Fel-Pro brand and witnessed this?
 

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DanR

Diamond Level Sponsor
What year is your engine? DO you know how many miles was on it when you tore it down? Was it original? Was the gasket original?

Asking a lot of questions to get an understanding why the difference...

Don't like the looks of the difference in between the gaskets you posted.

I have several sets of gaskets, so I will take a look.
 

Fergusonic

Donation Time
I have a set of new FelPro head gaskets p/ns 9136PT and 9132PT (L&R) and they match your new ones. Packaging reads for Mercury V6 171 1974 - 79 , Ford Truck V6 171 1983 - 86. Rock Auto lists Ranger and MII as the same Fel Pro part numbers.
I notice that the "Triangle" openings on the Head Gaskets are for the REAR of the heads (they would run hotter than the front).
On the heads the "triangle" water passages are all pass-thru to their closest or adjacent one.
 

srbaker

Donation Time
What year is your engine? DO you know how many miles was on it when you tore it down? Was it original? Was the gasket original?

Asking a lot of questions to get an understanding why the difference...

Don't like the looks of the difference in between the gaskets you posted.

I have several sets of gaskets, so I will take a look.

The motor is out of a 1979 Mustang, I drove the car before the drive train was pulled. The car had 67,000 km or roughly 42,000 miles with the motor being original to the car. I tore it down for the heads to be done, a leaking rear main, to change timing gears, install comp cam, etc. The gentleman I bought it from is the second owner of the car who was not aware of the motor being previously worked on. The car didn't smoke and ran strong but the valve seals were on the brink for sure. I wanted a known motor prior to doing the swap hence the tear down and of course a few extra ponies with the cam and four barrel won't hurt either. Gasket set P/N is FS 8451 PT-1 stated for a 1974-79 Ford Car
I am hesitant to use them by comparison.
 

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DanR

Diamond Level Sponsor
Here is a head gasket (new) by ROL for the left head and it has the same makeup as the "new" one SRBaker shows....

2.8 V6 Head Gasket ROL 20190611_222548.jpg

I have more gaskets that I can look at tomorrow..... just believe I will find the same thing.

Can't believe what I'm seeing.... Don't understand why some of the water passages are sealed off by the gasket.
 

Thor 1211

Silver Level Sponsor
After a 2 year hiatus I have gotten back to working on the motor. I was working on the heads today, drilling the cooling holes and looking at plugging the EGR holes. Using the head gaskets to mark the holes for drilling I thought they looked a little odd. I had kept the old gaskets when I tore the motor down so put them side by side. The Fel-Pro gaskets from the engine kit seem to be missing a lot of cooling port openings compared to the set I took off. Has anyone used the Fel-Pro brand and witnessed this?
Unless I'm not seeing things correctly, it looks like a lot of the ports are covered by the original gasket too. Even Dan's ROL has some of the ports blocked. When you install the new gasket do you cut the gasket to open up the ports?
 

MikeH

Diamond Level Sponsor
They might not be ports for water. They may be to empty the casting medium.
Compare the gasket to the block.
 

Fergusonic

Donation Time
This morning I took one of my 1976 MII 2.8 bare heads, laid it flat, and poured water down each of the "triangle" coolant passages. The water from all "triangle" passages exited the 2 coolant passages on the Intake side; meaning that all are connected.
My head gaskets have a single .115" hole, or a .150" hole, or a .232 hole for coolant to pass thru where the missing "triangle" would have been. Of course, they also have (4) .312 holes where we drill our heads for extra cooling.
Perhaps there is some engineering logic behind all this..... make that mysterious engineering logic.o_O
 

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
This morning I took one of my 1976 MII 2.8 bare heads, laid it flat, and poured water down each of the "triangle" coolant passages. The water from all "triangle" passages exited the 2 coolant passages on the Intake side; meaning that all are connected.
My head gaskets have a single .115" hole, or a .150" hole, or a .232 hole for coolant to pass thru where the missing "triangle" would have been. Of course, they also have (4) .312 holes where we drill our heads for extra cooling.
Perhaps there is some engineering logic behind all this..... make that mysterious engineering logic.o_O
No, probably routing water flow to properly (read evenly) cool the head. Bigger/more is not always better. I believe Mike is getting close to the truth. They may be there for a reason that is totally unrelated to cooling, just like freeze plugs are not freeze plugs. When cars are designed the manufacturers have to accommodate issues that we, as consumers, are totally oblivious of.
Bill
 
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