OP
dbritt
New member
It appears I have the proper gasket. John0829 wins the lottery this time.
I found many references to the gaskets having some passages blocked on purpose to control the coolant flow for better cooling. Another common reason is those holes in the block and head (but no hole for them in the gasket) are for cleaning the passages after the block is cast, and those passages weren't intended to be coolant passages to begin with.
The reason some gaskets have holes for all the passages seems to be that the aftermarket gasket makers don't always understand that those passages aren't supposed to be coolant passages to begin with, and that every passage isn't necessarily supposed to have a corresponding hole in the gasket. I suspect most DIY'ers are unaware that aftermarket head gaskets don't necessarily meet OEM specs. This does not explain why Sparex has 2 different gaskets for the same application, unless they don't make the gaskets themselves and are equally unaware that just because a head gasket SAYS it fits a Ford 3000 doesn't necessarily it's THE head gasket that should be installed on a Ford 3000.
Ruffdog and Stuckmotor get honorable mentions for their links, which were very informative and much appreciated.
Thanks to everyone for your input. Tomorrow the head goes on and the torque gets applied.
I found many references to the gaskets having some passages blocked on purpose to control the coolant flow for better cooling. Another common reason is those holes in the block and head (but no hole for them in the gasket) are for cleaning the passages after the block is cast, and those passages weren't intended to be coolant passages to begin with.
The reason some gaskets have holes for all the passages seems to be that the aftermarket gasket makers don't always understand that those passages aren't supposed to be coolant passages to begin with, and that every passage isn't necessarily supposed to have a corresponding hole in the gasket. I suspect most DIY'ers are unaware that aftermarket head gaskets don't necessarily meet OEM specs. This does not explain why Sparex has 2 different gaskets for the same application, unless they don't make the gaskets themselves and are equally unaware that just because a head gasket SAYS it fits a Ford 3000 doesn't necessarily it's THE head gasket that should be installed on a Ford 3000.
Ruffdog and Stuckmotor get honorable mentions for their links, which were very informative and much appreciated.
Thanks to everyone for your input. Tomorrow the head goes on and the torque gets applied.
