Need help asap with bhg problem...

[dunnbeetle]

Well I just got my head back from the machine shop and he had to take .020" off to get it straight...Im going with a stock head gasket and arps as there are no machine shops around here that will give me a good enough finish for a mhg. So my question is, can I use the stock hg after all that taken off the head(I believe I read the stock was 1mm thick)? or if not, does anyone know where I can get a thicker non-metal head gasket...and how thick would it have to be? thanks.

 

[IJ.]

Stock is 1.37mm thick, you've had .5mm removed it's not the end of the world and will bump the compression up a bit and move your cam timing a touch but not enough to really affect things badly.

 

[dunnbeetle]

Alright then I should just go ahead and throw the stock one on? Is it normal for the valves to stick out a little bit stock? If not then my head may have already been surfaced b4 I got it because they stuck out a little bit in the two middle cylinders when I took it off. also the machinist mentioned something about a shim for the hg, but im not really sure what it is, and I just dont see how it would work.

 

[IJ.]

If the Cams are still in some of the Valves will be full open this is normal.

I wouldn't be running a shim in a 7M it's hard enough to get our motors to seal correctly without adding another potential failure point.

At a guess I'd say 3/4 of the 7M's out there are running in your configuration without a problem.

Only downside would be it will limit the amount of boost you can run if you decided to crank things up to 11

 

[dunnbeetle]

Sweet thanks a lot! im prolly gunna stick to about 10 pounds(if thats ok?). I have another engine that im going to build for performance but then I blew this head gasket so I had to stop workin on that and fix this so I can at least use it for a daily driver vehicle.

 

[IJ.]

10 psi should be fine the 7M is pig rich in stock tune so this will give a safe tune as long as the rest of the parts are in good order!