I have a spoon head gasket and I am thinking of installing it to my car.
The question is when the engine is opened do I need to take off the entire engine and take it polishing or is it ok to just install the head gasket? The car is 01 model with 40 thousand km only.

Thanks

 

you take the head off, remove the old gasket, sometimes a razor blade is needed to remove parts of the gasket. Clean the surface with brake clean. Shoot brake clean onto a rag, not onto the motor. Thats how i do it. Do your best to make sure nothing falls into the cylinder or any of the holes that deliver and fluids. Once the sureface is clean place the new gasket on and then put the head back on. I know its a crude how to, but basically thats how its done.

-Ian

 

I

 

^^ Not required.

That would be correct if the car had a bad head gasket. If you are replacing a good head gasket with a high performance head gasket, you do not need to check the surface.

 

Even then you really only have to check the head for straightness. If the block is warped you'd have much bigger problems.

And the person you'd take it to is a machinist.

And it's a good idea to get the head checked too. I've installed two head gaskets on S2000s. One whilst rebuilding a motor with bad rings, the other with over heating problems (although turned out not to be headgasket related).

Both had warped heads close to the service limit.

 

A razor is not required on a S2000 to remove the old gasket material, all S2000's have a 3 layer metal headgasket.

 

It is for the sealant around the timing chain cavity.

 

That's not "Really" the headgasket though is it

I prefer not to use a razor on aluminum, it's to easy to gouge. Decent brake or contact cleaner and a rag will take of the sealant easily.

 

Ehh, tomARtoes/tomAYtoes.

 

hopefully the op gets something. Two of the best talking tomates tomahts over a headgasket swap

Best advise would be if your head is warped a new aftermarket gasket will most likely fail. Remove head, check head, install gasket. If warped, repair head.

Good luck.