Here's my problem, I recently blew a head gasket on my 91 Z 28. My mods are Afr 190's heads, cam 208\222 on 112 LCA tes headers with flow master cat back. Slp intake runners with ported intake. Paxton sn2000m giving 8lbs of boost. I took my heads off and my gasket looks fine, heads were psi checked and have no leaks what so ever. I was told that the gasket probally lifted and caused the water leak. The machine shop told me to put a coat of oil on the head gasket (both sides) so it would stick to the block and heads. Then, I should retorque the heads. Any sugestions and or thoughts on this?

 

I have never heard of this,sounds intersting if it is known to work,I have always installed head gaskets dry when I build motors.Did you retorque the heads after you installed them initially?,this helps head gasket longevity on aluminum headed motors.

 

i was going to a race shop where i live for awhile before and they do that with all there head gaskets so it must work they never had a prob with them and my dad does it to all his head gaskets he said it seals better

 

Ive always done dry installs too, but try it and let us know how it goes.

 

You do oil the teflon coated gaskets, like the ones Felpro makes. The blue slick feeling stuff on them is teflon. The oil doesn't so much make the gasket stick, it allows it to slide. When the heads and block are made of different materials they expand and contract at different rates. Even if made of the same material they can expand differently, shift or the heads can lift slightly. The teflon and oil help the material of the heads, block and gaskets move without losing the seal or gasket compression.
With out the oil and teflon, the composition gasket would stick to the heads and block. Then when the heads and block move differently to each other, like during expansion and contraction cycles, etc..., the composition material of the gasket shears, and loses integrity. Adding teflon to the gasket surface helps fill small irregularities, and makes the surface slick so it has less friction and can slide on the surface of the heads and block. Adding oil just improves this.
This is the same reason some other gasket companies make graphite impregnated foil surfaces for their gaskets.

Just for the record, a lot of people do re-use composition head gaskets, but I don't. I compress them once and then dispose and replace them. They will never reseal the second time as well as they did the first.