According to the Bentley:Mechanical Engines:- 1 notch - 0.67-0.80mm- 2 notch - 0.81-0.90mm- 3 notch - 0.91-1.02mmHydraulic Engines:- 1 notch - 0.66-0.86mm- 2 notch - 0.87-0.90mm- 3 notch - 0.91-1.02mm
How much did they deck the block?? I would certainly have the pistons shaved prior to fitting two headgaskets (that would double the odds of headgasket failure). The KS pistons have a coating and so the option of shaving the tops and removing the coating is not at all appealing to me. The top mating surface of the rod big ends could be shaved and the big end re-bored as, IMO, a more attractive alternative. Whenever I've had new pistons fitted without decking the block, the piston protrusion has decreased. I presume that oversize pistons move the pin closer to the piston crown purposefully in order to accommodate milling the deck. The process to avoid such difficulty from over-cutting the deck is to have the cylinders bored and then fit the crank rods and pistons. Then measure piston protrusion to get the baseline. Then remove crank/rods/pistons and do the match in order to tell the machinist the maximum amount of material that can be removed and still remain within the spec for piston protrusion using the 3 notch gasket.
i suppose maybe this is where those custom head gaskets might come in handy? but that would really suck having to buy a $100 gasket each time you pull the head...
It strikes me that shortening the conrods has got to be cheaper than custom headgaskets every time. You would then be back to std gaskets forever after that. Cheers Dan
why not get a FOUR NOTCH (yes, 4 notch) head gasket?they are available from some suppliers for just this reason - my dad needed one on his 1.5 after rebuild...given the bore of the 1.5 is the same...you can use same headgasket too.heck, if we can buy vw diesel 4-notch headgaskets here in australia, i reckon you MUST be able to over there :-)
Quote from: "gldgti"why not get a FOUR NOTCH (yes, 4 notch) head gasket?they are available from some suppliers for just this reason - my dad needed one on his 1.5 after rebuild...given the bore of the 1.5 is the same...you can use same headgasket too.heck, if we can buy vw diesel 4-notch headgaskets here in australia, i reckon you MUST be able to over there :-)i thought the extra thicknesses were only available for the 1.5 engine? and that 1.6's only had 3 notches, as well as the 1.9's.