Cometic Gasket VS Stock OEM Gasket and compression tests.

[Crashly]

Just thought I would do a follow up onb the findings of a 1 over stock bore and the compression that was found. A couple of weeks ago I rebiult the fl350 using a weisco piston and the cometic gasket kit. My compression was only 100 cold and 102 hot. I took the engine back into the shop and they tore the top end down and found that I hasd installed the evertything correctly. They then called Tripple E and they said to use a single layer OEM bronze gasket on the head. So I had the sop install all of the gastkets with only one layer of the stock OEM Honda head gasket. I checked the compression cold before leaving the shop and it is now at 125 cold. Not bad for a simple change in head gaskets. I didnt know that such a small change in gasket thickness could make such a change in compression.  I had them do a leak down test while the motor was in as well and we found that at 6 PSI one of the side gaskets completly popped out and the other was leaking. The big surprise was in the intake/Carb boot. I had personally cleaned inspected and installed the intake boot and everything looked great. When the Leak down test was performed it was found that there was a large crack in the intake boot. As it turns out unless I would have tweaked and pushed the lips of the intake the crack was not visible to the naked eye. So the moral of the story-- DO A LEAKDOWN TEST. Eventhough I thought evrything was great I was way off. In retrospect It would have been much earsier to simply just replace the crankshaft seals and intake boot from the begining. But I guess that is how we learn.  :oops:

[nuke em]

Thanks for the update, I was wondering what you found. Glad you found it now rather than jetting problems or siezure sometime later. I leakdown engines regularly now. It just makes everything easier to work on, rules out alot of things.

Gary

You need a stock intake boot? I have several. :wink: