Do I really need a AAZ head gasket?

[alex17young]

Hi friends, I'm glad the site is back in working order! Over the last few months I've rebuilt a CR 1.6 mechanical engine for my car. The ingredients are: new bearings, German-ish rings, I had the pistons shaved .010 to get it into one notch territory, AAZ three notch head gasket, same old abused ARP's, stock TD pump sprocket advanced one tooth (rotated sprocket clockwise tha'ts advanced right? timing unknown) , local rebuilt TD injectors, rebuilt VW T3 turbo (XS Boost rules!), huge overkill runner intake manifold I built, 2" intercooler piping to a massive China-made intercooler, 190mm Clutchnet stage 3.

I was trying to rack up 500 miles on the clutch so I could drag race at a diesel event today. Didn't happen, mileage or race. I blew out a freeze plug yesterday and drove 10 miles or so unaware I had no coolant. I fired it up today, sounded alright. I did a compression test today, 390psi and 380 in #3 and #4, 0psi in #1 and #2.

I used 2 ply of thin bicycle tube to plug the 2nd oil drain in the AAZ gasket, that was way too thick apparently! I'll tear the head off this week and check for flatness. If it checks out ok, I'm undecided as whether to run another AAZ gasket or just use a fiber 1.6 jobby. Fiber gaskets have treated me well, thought I'd give a AAZ a try, what to do?

I was amazed how quick my car felt running on 2 cylinders and 5 psi of boost haha. I'll post some pics of the intake if I can figure it out.

[theman53]

sounds bad. I would check the block and head to be sure they are straight before either gasket. If you are running 25psi or under I bet you would be fine with the fiber gasket. If you are over 20psi but under 25psi I don't know what to advise as many on here have said 20 is the magic number. I bet if you are studded and not stretch bolts the fiber will work pretty well.
If you go with the aaz gasket don't use a bike tube as they are not rated for oil, I am worried you hurt it a ton as you should have some kind of psi over 0

[vanbcguy]

I ran 23 PSI with a fibre gasket for a looooong time. But I had a big AWIC keeping things cool...

[alex17young]

I'm planning on running 20psi. My fiber gaskets held up fine with studs, running 15psi, non intercooled and really high egt's. I'll start tear down tomorrow night, see how bad things are warped.

[RabbitJockey]

he ran it with no coolant, that whole things probably toast, if ur lucky the heads still good.  i think fiber gaskets are fine, especially with studs.  good luck on version 2.0, sounds like a nice setup less the freeze out plug issue.

[alex17young]

I'm taking my head to the machine shop tomorrow to see if they can save it. Someone said something about pre chamber protrusion in the part of this thread that was lost, I couldn't find anything about that in the Bentley. Anyone know the spec???