Head gasket thickness

[Quagmire]

Hey guys ordering new head gaskets for freshly decked heads. I should get 0.040 thickness head gasket or will 0.030 will work?

 

[Ironhand]

Stock Ford head gaskets are 0.036.

 

[Quagmire]

Would i run into P to V issues with 0.030? Or should i just go buy the stock ones. Only reason i ask bud has cometic 0.030 sitting on his desk not being used and could save me a few hundred dollars.

 

[Ironhand]

That depends on how much your block and heads have been decked. How big your cams are and where you install them plus if you have piston notches.

0.030 will bump the compression ratio over stock and 0.040 will drop it alittle bit.

 

[Quagmire]

Only heads were decked, i think 0.005,everything else is stock.

 

[Ironhand]

A 0.030 thick head gasket will bump compression by 0.10.
A 0.040 thick head gasket will drop the compression by 0.07.

 

[Quagmire]

So should i have pv clearance issues if i go with 0.030? With all stock components?

 

[Ironhand]

No. But I would check it anyways.

 

[Quagmire]

Thanks