1964 V8 300 Head Gasket help

6

64skylarkconvertible

Newbie
Hello all,
glad i found this site! can't seem to figure this out:

I'm no expert, never done an engine rebuild, but everything else I do myself.

My '64 Skylark Convertible V8 300 overheated, so I pulled off the heads and had them machined, bought the gaskets and went to put them on.

BUT, the old gaskets seem to have coolant ports drilled in them where the new gaskets do not. AND the block and head seem to have ports in those places. The gaskets do have large oblong ports on either end, but the block doesn't have a port on one end, just a small hole. I've looked all over can't seem to find a gasket that has the holes for all the ports on the block and head. I have a picture of the gasket i do have that i can send to anyone interested. If anybody has any ideas please let me know. I'm at a loss to find an answer.

thanks,
Q
 
The gaskets are not supposed to have all the holes in them. Picture this- the coolant that has been cooled in the radiator enters the front of the block through the water pump. It circulates around the cylinders until it gets to the back of the block. It then goes up through the long slot at the back of the block into the cylinder heads and then travels forward inside the head and out into the intake crossover and then back out to the radiator. This is the standard coolant flow for almost any modern V8. Most of the holes in the decks of the blocks and heads are there to facilitate core sand removal from when the castings were made. If all the holes were open in the gaskets the coolant would not circulate like it is supposed to and your engine would not cool properly. The low temperature coolant from the radiator would never make it to the back of the engine. It would rise up through all the holes in the deck and get pushed back out to the radiator causing parts of the engine to run too cool, ( the front ) and parts of the engine to run too hot ( the rear ). As for the holes being different between the old gaskets and the new gaskets I don't think I'd worry too much about it. Every gasket manufacturer has their own theory's on how to do it best and they will probably all work just fine. If you were to open gasket sets from 5 different makers you would probably find several small differences between them. Look at the gaskets to see if they are labeled "front" or "top" and install them per the instructions, torque them with an accurate torque wrench, and get on down the road. Good Luck.
 
Thanks!

thanks for that. Holes had worn through on the old gasket, which would explain why it overheated. Been stuck on that one for a month. Very much appreciate the well worded response. Thanks Again,
Quinn
 
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