good to know griff thanks!! I think if I can get away with the cheaper route ill probably do that as im looking at buying a complete shortblock now possibly so no reason to tear it apart to have the head cleaned up just for the purpose of running a gasket that I probably don't need

Stewart

IMHO: Felpro HG (more forgiving and you have mild engines) and ARP Bolts. Studs harder to seal in 454 blocks, studs can interfere with other things, plus the bolts will handle pantloads of HP. Pantloads = a schitton. :)

kinda what I was thinking thanks!!

Stewart

have you ever had the pleasure of removing an aluminum head that has been on a cast iron block with steel head studs?after about 5 years when the heads need to come off it is dam near not posable because of the corrosion from the dissimilar metals.the head stud is bigger through the middle and promotes the corrosion.

steel heads... use a permatorque head gasket and the appropriate ARP bolts... IMPO

thanks guys!!

how do I determine what thickness I need??

Stewart

.039 is pretty normal. Going up or down will change compression and quench slightly.

7-8lbs boost? Dart Heads? Chiller? Upgraded cam? you're gonna be spinning the bearings out of the 177 trying to get 8lbs of boost.

better heads, better cam, drop boost and gain power. Chiller is a bit of a restriction, and blower needs to be spin faster to overcome that. That tiny blower is gonna be working overtime for minimum wage.

imo, you wanna run 8lbs on that combo, get a 8-71.

As for head gasket thickness , as long as your Pistons aren't above the deck, a .040 gasket should be fine.

He did say that he is upgrading the blower to 575 blower, still small at 250/256 but should be OK for a 454.