Head gasket choice

[Chris_EK4]

I'm doing an engine rebuild on my DC5 and I'm pondering between head gaskets, Its between Cosworth, Spoon and Mugen, The Mugen looks like the best 0.5mm thick and raises the comp .4 points to 11:7 (iirc), I will be running Buddy Club Stage 2 cams, would this be a good choice? Keeping internals standard so don't know of a .4 raise will be too much for oem internals don't want to cause engine pinging etc, Spoon raises by 0.2 not sure if thats a better choice, Thanks

 

[integraleo]

We don't gain the benefits of higher compression in this country with our fuel. Just look at ep3s,once they have the same bolt on mods they gain more power than dc5s. Higher compression than what we already have the gains would only be noticed on race fuel. From what I remember the fd2 compression is 11:7

 

[Wingnuttzz]

We don't gain the benefits of higher compression in this country with our fuel. Just look at ep3s,once they have the same bolt on mods they gain more power than dc5s. Higher compression than what we already have the gains would only be noticed on race fuel. From what I remember the fd2 compression is 11:7

Quoted for the truth.

OEM head gasket is the way to go I believe.

 

[wj51fut]

Yep. Was contemplating this when I had my head changed over. OEM is the way forward. Safe bet too.

 

[C2AXG]

Why don't you skim the head and lower the compression to work better with our fuel?
"Is this possible" ... Probably not

 

[Spoon_Sports_Europe]

The spoon gasket isn't designed just for horsepower gains, it's been made to improve reliability. Here is a little of the bumph...

"The main purpose for the gasket is to maintain airtight condition inside the combustion chamber while withstanding extreme temperature and pressure. Honda engines are known to run at high rpms, At above 9000rpms, the cylinder walls of the open-deck structure begins to micro vibrate. The inner wall of the cylinder is steel, wrapped around by aluminum. The rates of thermal expansion between the two materials are different. That creates a height difference at the top of the cylinder. Gaskets blow from such thermal expansion and micro vibrations. When the gasket blows, it sends explosive pressure to the water line, creating serious damage to the cooling system within the engine. Spoon‘s goal was to develop a new gasket specially designed for high revving Honda engines. We laser welded two sheet materials with a 25 micron difference in thickness. The welding line was designed to be at the center of the 6mm wide cylinder wall. This helped to maintain the same compression from cold to high temperatures. The sheet material we used was exactly the same as Honda‘s stock gaskets.Applying YAG laser welding was essential to achieving high sealing performance and durability. At first glance, our gasket looks just like stock. We focus on the slightest change in performance and the unique characteristics of each engine to minimize any risks, even if they are small. Such approach is universal to Spoon‘s product development."

 

[davidpingu]

Interesting read that.

Pretty sure skimming the head will raise compression not lower it.

People use ep3 as an example of lower compression being better on power but FD2 has higher compression and they put out in excess of 240bhp on the rollers so I think you can argue both ways. Obviously the FD2 has other reasons for the power hike but my point is it doesn't run like a bag of spanners on our fuel and makes good numbers so I don't necessarily agree with the fuel argument but that's just my personal opinion of course

 

[integraleo]

Fd2 has different intake and different map on obviously different manifold compared to dc5 and honda state an extra 5hp. Where did 240+ come from? Same as our engine with bolt ons that's an achievable number but not standard.

 

[beppe786]

some standard FD2 make 240bhp on our fuel

yeah thicker head gasket will lower compression

 

[davidpingu]

Fd2 has different intake and different map on obviously different manifold compared to dc5 and honda state an extra 5hp. Where did 240+ come from? Same as our engine with bolt ons that's an achievable number but not standard.

Here for one: http://m.autocar.co.uk/car-review/honda/civic/first-drives/honda-civic-type-r-0

And I did mention they have differences but ultimately it's still a k20 and my point was it runs very healthy straight off the boat. I notice the limiter is slightly higher on the FD2 which I hadn't realised before.

 

[integraleo]

Yes the limiter is 100rpm higher than ours but even mapped our engines don't tend to make power above the standard limiter due to the cams and as I've found out recently the fd2 uses the same cams as ours. Would seem odd if they indeed kicked out more power standard than honda themselves claim. And is some of the strong engine comment due to generally newer engine with lower miles than the majority of our dc5s? I'm not doubting they are higher power honda themselves have said that....but almost 20hp more? Tdi north maybe

 

[davidpingu]

A few manufacturers claim lower than true figures. I don't know why. VW are renowned for it and I've read that Porsche seriously understate their power figures with the 911 turbo.

 

[CaLi]

I've found out recently the fd2 uses the same cams as ours.

Are they? i was looking at cams earlier and the figures i came across were.

k20
Intake duration 320* / 12.27mm Lift
Exhaust duration 318*/ 10.77mm Lift
FD2
Intake duration 283* / 11.7mm Lift
Exhaust duration 276*/ 10.1mm Lift

 

[integraleo]

Tdi north measured them