smokewagon

i've got my head off right now replaceing my #6 piston cause my crankshaft senor gear come off and did a number on the bottom side. so now my queston is if i do head studs on a new stock head gasket does anything change as far as how much drive pressure/boost they can stand up to? or would it be better to buy an aftermarket one that is a little heavier duty the only upgrade i'm planning on right now is a he351 turbo swap so i'm not gonna be running that much over the stock set up for boost until further down the road.

thanks Austin

dieselfan

IIRC the .20 is just a marine gasket and isnt that much more $$$ than a stock.JMO

kawi600

You only need oversize gaskets when a lot of material has been removed to make the head flat.
sounds like all the cummins replacement gaskets are now the marine version. Theres part numbers in the forums somewhere im sure.
You wont need to really worry about head gasket, orings and studs until you boost over 40psi, add water/meth, twins, nos, propane, or increase timing a lot.

Big Blue24

Are you doing the gasket or is a shop doing the work?

smokewagon

me and my brother are doing all the work my trucks head is off and is going back on tommorow night

Big Blue24

Several guys are getting away with overtorqueing the stock bolts up to 120 ft lbs and pushing 50-60 psi boost long term. There is a procedure used to take stock bolts that high so don't just crank em up to 120 all at once or more than likely one of them can/will have issues.

Mike Holmen

How does the block deck surface look like? Check to see if its flat on both the block and head. The head tend to warp and need a good decking to clean-up. Of course if run stock boost pressure, a good scrub on the deck surface and re-torque is adequate. On studs and stock head gasket, you should be good for 50psi. More than that consider o-rings and/or fire rings. I'm ok with changing head gaskets, so I like pushing it on the boost. Crank the arp's up to 135 ft*lbs and let her rip and get those turbines spoolin.