I was told that installing a thinner head gasket would warrant similiar results as shaving the head a tiny bit. Can anyone confirm this, or is it a bunch of bull?

 

Come on now, think about that for a second, it should be obvious. Even if you went to government schools it should be obvious.

 

To answer your question boyracer it would.

 

hahaspit.gif

Cold man, very cold.

 

Just curious as to why you are trying to raise the compression in your engine? If your just experimenting then I would go with the gasket first. At least you can go back to stock without buying another head if things don't work out right. If your taking the head off I would recommend taking it to a machine shop to get checked for warpage and cleaned before re-assembling with a gasket that is thinner.

Depending on how thin of a gasket you do end up running there will be an increase in CR and I believe your timing will be affected too so you may need to compensate with an adjustable cam gear plus you are increasing the octane requirement of the car too.

If you do end up doing this project please post back with your results.

When its time to tear my engine down I plan on doing whatever I can to increase the NA performance of the engine before putting it back in.

My Tiburons compression was 212 across all 4 cylinders when I had checked it before replacing all the HLA's at 150,000miles. cool.gif

 

I DO NOT recommend trying this for a couple of reasons. 1) The OE gasket is a multilayer steel gasket that can withstand a lot of abuse and keep things sealed up. Going to a thinner 1 layer gasket sacrifices this reliability. 2) Any CR gain you might get will be minimal because once the stock gasket is crushed its already pretty thin.

3) Stock compression is already pretty high so unless you run race fuel or E85 your gonna cause more problems then its worth by raising the compression. If your serious about doing this though you can have your block zero decked. That's where the block is skimmed just enough so that the top of the piston crown is level with the top of the block. This maintains proper quench area as well as does a good job of raising the compression upwards of a 1/2 point.

 

The Beta II head gasket is 2-layer and slightly thinner than the Beta I's 3-layer gasket. It works fine on the Beta I, with slightly increased static compression. The OP didn't say anything about a 1-layer gasket. The timing will be affected by <1 degree even with a moderately aggressive shaving of the cylinder head or block. It is literally nothing to worry about. Increasing compression ratio is a recipe for disaster unless your car has a knock sensor and can retard timing, which ours do. I would rather shave the head than the block, because the head is WAY less work to get on/off, as well as being easier to transport. Singh grooves have been shown on Beta engines to be able to stave off detonation even with static compression in the 10.7:1 range (when using 1.8L pistons on 2.0L rods).

 

My beta 2 head gasket was 3 layers...I still say switching gaskets is not worth it and shaving the head can alter the combustion chamber and quench area if not done right. wink.gif Singh grooves shown? AFAIK your grooved head hasn't been put on the block yet. Did someone else with a Beta do it?

 

At least two other members on RDT, and (gathered from the garbled mess that is Somender Singh's website) several in India, done by Singh.

Changing the oil can kill your engine if not done right. Do things right.

 

and we all know that since 2 rdt guys failed

that must be the word of god


i remember when people talked sh*t about my bbk cuz the calipers were "too heavy"

now ive seen at least 6 of you guys rocking my setup