All Small Six Mahle head gasket compressed thickness

[bubba22349]

That's very interesting clochard68, yet it's not what I was thinking the Mahle would measure so the online data I found was wrong and proves once again that your better off doing your own checking to verify. Also now we know that the FelPro head gasket is the thinnest of the remaining available head gaskets we can still get. Thank you for measuring and documenting the two head gaskets. I have used the FelPro head gaskets almost exclusively for severial decades now in engine builds with out problems so I will continue using them.

 

[clochard68]

That's very interesting clochard68, yet it's not what I was thinking the Mahle would measure so the online data I found was wrong and proves once again that your better off doing your own checking to verify. Also now we know that the FelPro head gasket is the thinnest of the remaining available head gaskets we can still get. Thank you for measuring and documenting the two head gaskets. I have used the FelPro head gaskets almost exclusively for severial decades now in engine builds with out problems so I will continue using them.

Just to clarify, I measured both gaskets in the original uncompressed state. From what I read the mahle supposedly compresses more than the felpro, resulting in thinner compressed thickness than the felpro. I can't confirm this, just wanted to give a little comparision of both gaskets since I got them both atm.

Initially I was going to install the mahle. Now that I measured how thick the metal part of the mahle is I'm not so sure anymore...
Of course I want the thinest, yet also a reliable gasket. The felpro somehow just seems more "high tech" with the used material and the orange sealing parts, on the other hand I read the felpro leaks almost certainly if not treated with something like aviation form-A gasket.
I will give this some more thought and will do more research I guess

 

[bubba22349]

Yes the FelPro Perma Torque if I remember right was the first no retorque head gasket made this was the main reason I started using them. Then some years later they also added the Print O Seal feature (Organe Rings around water passages) to their head gaskets these both were break through tech many years ago and they seal very well. I don't use any sealers on any of brands of composition head gaskets I would only use sealers on the older (and thiner) steel shim type or the custom made copper type metal head gaskets. As long as the head deck and block deck surfaces are clean and are machined straight / flat and head bolts torqued down properly they will seal very well.

Your Felpro measurement is 1.72 MM I am not very good at the metrics but using one of the online conversions that's is about .0677 we know that the FelPro head gasket is suppose to have a crush thickness of .050 by their web site so that would be quite a difference of .0177 from its original unused state, I never thought they would compressed that much.

The Mahle at 1.75 isn't really that much thicker its difference at .0679, is only .0002 (I think this is like a human hairs thickness) so is very little. It's very possable that if the Mahle's material hardness is softer than a FelPro it could also have a thiner crush thickness. I don't know how you can know the crush thickness of the Mahle head gasket unless they would tell you or else you would need to install the gasket and run it for awhile. Anther way would be to do a compression test, if it was done back to back with each head gasket used on the same engine it could show which gave you the highest cylinder pressure which would mean less CC's volume in the compressed head gasket. That is as long as the test was done in the same location, plus the weather, and air temps were also very close to the exact same for both tests. Best of luck

 

[clochard68]

I measured the gaskets on two different points. The pictures don't show the readings very well. They are as follows:

Max. felpro thickness uncompressed: 1.3mm
Min. felpro thickness uncompressed: 1.2mm

Max. mahle gasket uncompressed: 1.6mm
Min. mahle thickness uncompressed: 1.25mm

 

[bubba22349]

Yes I did noticed that. The only thing else that would be very nice to know and a big help in figuring out how much head machining and CC's would be needed for a desired Compression Ratio goal, along with the crush thickness of those Mahle head gaskets is important for the machining of the blocks deck height in setting up the Quench distance. I think we can reasonablely guess this amount to be around from around .044 to .050 but I wonder if Mahle wouldn't have that info listed and make it available to us?

 

[bubba22349]

Update so here's the answer to the mystery on the "# 3910 VC Mahle Head Gasket Original". I contacted Mahle direct about their Head Gaskets Crush Thickness and received an answer this afternoon. They said they only have this one head gasket avaiable for all the small Ford Six'es, the 144, 170, 200, & 250. This part # 3910VC has a Crush. Thickness of .045, so the orginal info I found on Rock Auto was correct. It also has a compressed volume of 9.391 CC's. This Mahle head gasket is also available in a Head Set with all the addistional top end gaskets and valve stem seals needed to do a Valve Job or for completion of a Short Block into a Long Block this set is # HS3910UJ.

Hi Clochard68, need to find out the Mahle's gasket bore opening size,. I am thinking it's going to be about 3.820, can you measure your's? Edited

 

[bubba22349]

This is what I found so far on the FEL-Pro Head Gasket # 7916 PT1 it is available for use on all the small Ford Six'es 144, 170, 200 & 250's. This head gasket is oddly listed as having a manufactured thicknes as .0415 to .0485. It has a gasket bore opening of 3.820. The crush thickness is ........ and it has a volume of ........ CC's need to get those two measurements yet to fill in those blanks and will update this post with the info when I find out.

 

[chad]

compressed is all that matters.
This one is in the middle then. Victor still gets it as thin.
Love to know % st cars w/a steel gasket...

 

[clochard68]

From my understanding the mahle is the victor gasket as they are the same company. I have only found the mahle/victor and the felpro gasket online for purchase so far.

 

[chad]

2 bad, they got fatter when the germans purchased it.