HOOPS

Hoops,
I have a set of Brad 5 fatheads with hoops,
I have a KB Stage 4 solid block, that the sleeves were originally cut for reciever grooves of the stainless wire variety.
Had the sleeves cut to accommodate the hoops per a manufacturer dimensions and I still have an issue that there isn't enough silicone on the planet to seal.
The heads and block surfaces are strait and true. I mocked it up, only torqued it to 50lbs with dykem on both sides of the gasket looking for answers. Used a .050 gasket rationalizing I had them and will probably never use them so make some use out of them.
I know what sizes I'm looking at as far as depth width etc... but want unbiased opinions of what you use as far as reciever groove depth, width, and how much sleeve you have above the deck.
I'm a machinist by trade myself.
Northeastern Oklahoma isn't exactly the hotbed of modern hemi development, so help me out here please. Tired of taking this thing back to the machine shop. Already wasted 5 months and most of this season.

 

When you say silicone -do you mean a oil leak? compression?

 

I wish I could post a pic here. There is visible daylight between the deck and head. You don't need a feeler gauge.

 

How high are the sleeves ?- are the gaskets dead soft?

 

Sleeve registers in the block are generally machined to allow the sleeve to be .004-.005" higher than the block deck surface (TFX, Brad, KB)....and they do leak a little oil from the valley across the head surface and down the side of the block....pretty annoying for a clean freak like me...
What we use is high temp grease - Lucas 575 degree wheel bearing grease smeared on both sides of the gasket.....stops the oil seepage and very easy to clean up when you have the heads off....just wipe off the gasket/block/head surfaces...
Hope this helps but it sounds like your sleeves might be higher than .004-.005"

 

My Brad hemi also has a noticeable space between the heads and block. Personally, I would never use a totally dead soft gasket but that is just my personal opinion. At the point you are in, I would suggest sending the block and heads to BAE. As far as oil return holes and oil seepage from the intake side around the sleeves/heads to the lower side, I dimple the copper gasket with a Dzus dimple tool and then smear Ultragray silicone along the bottom of the block to head surface on both sides of the gasket. Just a light smear, it ain't the Titanic.

 

never thought of using a dzus tool I always used a push rod..

 

Where are you dimpling the gasket? Just around the return holes?

 

Around the return holes and the oil feed hole. My AJ fuel heads have about a 1/2" oil return hole. A push rod dimple would not be big enough for my heads on the oil return hole. A push rod would work on the oil feed hole, though. I am about to look for annular cutters to make an o-ring groove in the block and head to solve the leakage problem once and for all.

 

I'm thinking of just laying a small o-ring in the hole in the gasket. May have to drill the gasket out a bit, but the o-ring isn't going to go anywhere with the head on and with .100 or so space between the block and head it really doesn't need a groove. The only issue with no groove is that its one more thing you need to keep track of during disassembly and assembly.
The drool the runs down from the valley between will always have to be contained with the silicone smear at the bottom - no getting around that...

 

Something else I do when putting heads on my hemi is to add an oring at the head bolt at the block that is the oil feed path to the rockers. Trying to capture the oil and keep it in the intended path instead of letting it leak out between the block and head. Keep the cross section of the oring really small. Not much room there to squeeze an oring around the bolt and in the gasket space.