gazbrook 0 Posted December 5, 2004 Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 My Head gasket has gone, seems it couldn't handle the charger, obviously i have been happier. I am after a copper or uprated head gasket from the uk. I don't want to get one from abroad because of the waiting time for shipping, is there anybody over here who does them???Cheers Link to post Share on other sites
MarkGolf 6 Posted December 5, 2004 Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 DesignDubs get them....Give them a call...Blown it already, swear you only just got it on the road! Crazy! Link to post Share on other sites
gazbrook 0 Posted December 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 yes markgolf you are right it has been on the road about 3 weeks, it was v v fast for the 1 hour it was running with the charger on! Link to post Share on other sites
MarkGolf 6 Posted December 5, 2004 Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 Thats a bit of a pisser!! Shame!Was it an OE gasket? Link to post Share on other sites
Valver 0 Posted December 5, 2004 Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 I think you can use the head gasket off a Mk4 12v Vr6 (US Spec) - part should be avilable from UK i'd have thought on special order?....It giver lower compression ratio iirc?... Link to post Share on other sites
MarkGolf 6 Posted December 5, 2004 Report Share Posted December 5, 2004 Yeah, gives it higher comp, so no good for a charged engine [ Edited Mon Dec 06 2004, 12:06AM ] Link to post Share on other sites
mightyvr6 0 Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 no, you don't want a Mrk 4 12v gasket as it's thinner and raises the compression. Link to post Share on other sites
gazbrook 0 Posted December 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 Thanks guys, i will get the best copper head gasket designa dubs have, gonna order it tomorrow. Link to post Share on other sites
jcorallo 0 Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 1) check out your Charger chip - is it the right one for your engine?2) has the ECU thrown any codes, like bad knock sensor? Is the engine generally in good tune? Can you hear pinging?3) is it over-heating? Is the thermostat working?OK - above are the general reasons you might have a leaky gasket...Generally, a copper or uprated gasket is not what you want. Your gasket wont have blown in the traditioanl sense I'm betting. You'll find that the extra boost and heat lifts the VR6 head off the block and allows pressure to seep into the water passages, either side of the gasket. This is laregly due to the design of the VR6 - having only 20 poxy stretch bolts shared between 6 cylinders.... thats just a little over 3 bolts per cylinder... holding all that extra power in....I would invest in a new OEM Victor Reinze head gasket (~£25), and a set of ARP head studs (~£220). You will never need to lift your head off again.Trust me on this one.Jules Link to post Share on other sites
jcorallo 0 Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 oh, and copper head gaskets only 'last' about 5k miles before the paste used to glue them on, disintegrates and casues leaks. Link to post Share on other sites
mightyvr6 0 Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 good advice Jules or go for a C2 motorsports 9.0:1 head spacer if you want to lower the comp + arp bolts. Link to post Share on other sites
jcorallo 0 Posted December 6, 2004 Report Share Posted December 6, 2004 yep - but dont forget that lowering compression will obsolete the ECU chip... the car will still run Ok-ish, but not at its best,£500 handed over to Stealth and Mr AMD with his box of tricks will sort you out.Jules Link to post Share on other sites
gazbrook 0 Posted December 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 Cheers Jules,the car was running fine in general, it has the right charger chip,it already had arp head bolts but not sure what kinda gasket it had. The thermostat was also working and not overheating, as for the ecu giving out any dodgy codes i'm not sure as it's not been on a diagnostic machine. When i have it put back together i will have that done aswell as a compression test. I'm well confused as to what gasket to use, i had my mind set on a copper one as designa dubs recommended but that might be just because they make a lot of money out of them??? Link to post Share on other sites
mightyvr6 0 Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 the oem gasket (victor reinze) as Jules mentioned should be well capable of handling the relatively small boost pressure generated by the zr2 especially if you already have arp head bolts. But that begs the question why the gasket blew in the first place. Link to post Share on other sites
jcorallo 0 Posted December 7, 2004 Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 Well, it is recommended that you re-torque the ARP head studs after a few hundred miles. This could be a possibility as to why it could have weeped.... I think I did mine to 65lb/ft and left it at that (no more or you'll squish the head!).Jules Link to post Share on other sites
gazbrook 0 Posted December 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2004 would the victor reinze still be capable of handling the power of my car tho,??even though it's only a zr2 charger, my car was giving out 227 bhp before the charger so that should put it over the 300 bhp mark now Link to post Share on other sites
jcorallo 0 Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 ok - just read your sig - 3.0 litre and I'm assuming you've got cams right? I assume this is how you got 227bhp? Do you have a Big Valve Head?If so, the chip you got with the kit is unsuitable - and is most likely the reason you damaged the gasket........The charger kit including the supplied chip is available for either a standard 2.8 or standard 2.9 engine.... with standard cams, standard cylinder capacity and standard compression. Its meant to be plug and play. So even just going to 3.0litre means you cant use the chip.If you engine has anything internal that sets it appart from a stock VR6 engine, then your chip is scrap.You'll need to get a custom map from AMD, for example. £500.So...... is the chip a standard chip or is a custom mapped one for the charger?Jules[ Edited Wed Dec 08 2004, 12:12AM ] Link to post Share on other sites
VR6Pete 1,455 Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 .... or stealth racing Link to post Share on other sites
gazbrook 0 Posted December 9, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2004 it has been custom mapped for the 3 litre conversion ,cams ,head and all but not for the charger. I was going to get it remapped in a week or so. SILLY ME!! I thought that it would be ok till then, how wrong could i be! I had been driving it for just over an hour of fitting, i gave it some real stick and then BOOM!! Link to post Share on other sites
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