So. Had the short block built. My brother lapped the valves in the SE 2 Heads. The machinist ordered the head gaskets for me. Guess what. I didn't know. Who knew. The extra 4 lower bolts for the stage 2 heads. Were not stamped in the head gaskets from Cometic. Seriously. I thought that Larry or someone would have gave me a heads up. I guess that is the Buick family these days. What is is.
never take ANYTHING for granted when building a perf/custom engine. always check and mock everything at least twice before machine work and build. you can only count on yourself with this kind of build on ANY engine. live and learn, you will be better for it. best of luck! charlie,
You should probably check with Jim Weise as you go through your build. He has faced everything you can imagine.
Who knew? I wanna say 75% of the guys here probably. I remember you asking me about the 4 extra bolts at some point. I have never used Cometic gaskets, so I might not have been able to give you the answer you wanted.
Cometic MLS gaskets? They most certainly do have the extra 4 holes in them.. just went and looked at a set hanging on my engine room wall.. Maybe they make a composite gasket? Never seen one. In any even, if you have the TA drill jig, it's no big deal to add the extra holes. JW
Appreciate the good words. I was just frustrated. Thought that it was an unforced error type of thing. Thx
You are correct. Theres always something. It's not my first hot rod. Just my first Buick engine build. Have to wait for TA to get back from Christmas/New Years vacation which they deserve. It's only basically January. Hope to get the correct head gaskets (which I'm guessing are not in stock, but I have no way of knowing until January 8th). In any case. It's a few months until spring. Happy New Year.
Yes embossed. What happened is my machinist offered to order them for me from Cometic which at time seemed fine. When I picked them up and brought them home I obviously realized that the 3/8" lower bolt holes were missing but as you said - embossed. I brought them out to him. He called Cometic to see if we could send them back to be corrected. Cometic, which he deals with a lot - basically told him that they could NOT do this because they have a contract with TA. That those Stage 2 head gaskets are made exclusively for TA. And sorry. So lesson learned everyone. If you have these heads and other custom TA heads. You need to get the head gaskets from TA Performance. Who knew lol ! All good. We'll figure it out. Happy New Year!
Thanks Jim. I'm pretty sure that you are building my next 455. (Stroker?) So you know. I have a punch/die set. Problem is Five (5) layer. O80 gaskets . Including 2 stainless steel layers. Not the old Felpro small/big block chevy days of my youth. A great friend of mine is trying to try and help but honestly. I'm going for the correct TA ones. Where am I going right? It's December.
Ok. So here is the current TA catalog. Notice TA #1725 DOES NOT DIFFERENTIATE about type of head. Page 100. Because their gaskets have the extra lower holes. No matter what. You are getting those holes even if you have stock heads - you get those extra holes. Which won't affect anything if you only have stock heads. They are beyond the combustion chamber. I'd like to hear what the Buick guys say. Am I nuts?
They are absolutely made by Cometic. For TA Performance. Like I said earlier. And honestly they are pretty wild head gaskets. If I knew. I would have ordered them from TA. They actually were cheaper.
