legacycentral bbs

i JUST replaced my headgaskets on my 2.2, now after a month of thinking and not driving the car while its getting body work done i want to swap to 2.5 heads...


my question is, did i already screw myself by torqing down the head bolts? are the headgaskets able to be reused? i only ran the car for about an hour total after the replacement but never drove it.

you need to buy new head gaskets.

an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

this is one of those "better safe than sorry" moments.

If you dont mind replacing head gaskets, I would cover them in CopperCoat and reuse them. Knowing that you may(most likely will) have issues later. How much later, I dont know.

you're going to want to run the EJ25 head gasket anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Why would he use 2.5 Head Gaskets?

You need to match the head gaskets with the size of the Bore, not the head.

yeah but 2.2 N/A gaskets wouldnt line up on a 2.5 heads, as far as coolant passages. Thats probably what he was getting at. IMO you should use 2.2 turbo gaskets, as they will line up properly and match the bore, but they are thicker and you will lose some c/r. But you would be losing c/r with the 2.5 anyway as it has more volume. So IMO use the 2.2 turbo gaskets, either way. I would never re-use headgaskets, wether or not you can thats up to discussion. They are only supposed to be torqued once though.

yup, coolant passeges don't line up. Use the EJ25 gaskets. Even with the thin SOHC gasket you'll loose compression with the EJ25 head swap. With the 2.2 gaskets you'll loose even more plus you'll have overheating problems because you don't get coolant to the head. People with EJ25 heads on EJ22T (closed deck) blocks use the EJ25 gasket and either live with the poor block matchup or dremel it out to make it fit better. If you have an open deck block, the block passages don't matter, match the head.

thats some good advice sammy. gonna need that later...

OK. Lets get some things straight.

EJ22t and Post 97 EJ22e (NA) head gaskets match the passages in the 2.5 heads.

I dont see the point of using 2.5 head gaskets.

EJ22t HGs are alittle over .050" thick
Thin 2.2 HGs are about .027" thick

The pistons on the Ej22t protrude about .010"

If you are running stock cast pistons with the factory rev limit, I think the thin HGs might be fine.

But, If you are going to use forged pistons and a much higher redline, you should use the thick head gaskets to be on the safe side.

Almost everyone I have talked to, says that running less than .030" piston-to-head clearance is not worth the risk.

napphappy wrote: EJ22t HGs are alittle over .050" thick
Thin 2.2 HGs are about .027" thick

Not to hijack the thread but wasn't there an upgraded head gasket for the EJ22T that was even thicker than OEMs? Or am I thinking of the EJ25?

Like I said, and nappy also said, the EJ22 turbo head gasket will match the EJ25 coolant passages, dont use the ej25 head gasket.