Head-Mechanics

A head Gasket is a way of mating the two halves of the engine together. The two halves are known as the cylinder head and the block/crankcase. The engine is made in two halves because it would be impossible to cast the complex chambers, ports, and channels from a solid steel block. Also the two halves are made from different metals. The cylinder head on newer engines tends to be made from aluminium alloy and the crankcase is steel, sometimes aluminium alloy. The Head gasket acts to join the two halves, it also performs the duty of a fuse blowing when the stresses get to much. This saves the more expensive cylinder head from more than likely damage. Head gaskets are made from allsorts of materials from the earlier cork gaskets up to more complex multi layer steel (MLS) gaskets with carbon centres. The head gasket has to be made to seal the combustion chambers, oil, and water passages. It must also give to the extreme stresses caused from the exploding fuel and extreme temperatures. It is there important to make sure that it is fitted correctly. Below are some pictures to help explain were a head gasket is found. You should be able to see from the pictures the amount of work that needs to be done.

Here is a picture of the Multi Layer Steel Gasket. We use gaskets from CamTec and as of yet we have not had a Head Gasket Failure (HGF)

Here You can see the MLS gasket and the 6th layer (shim). Its this layer which creates the seal between the cylinder head and gasket. without this shim the head gasket would fail.

Your MGF should not smoke excessively from the exhaust:
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