thinner head gasket.. any gain?

[titan74]

I am planning to replace my head gasket with a thinner one from the oem, hoping to increase compression ratio.. is there any noticeable gain from doing these?.. what is the original thickness of the gasket for the m44?.. thnx

 

[Big Daddy]

I highly doubt that by replacing the factory gasket with a thinner spec gasket you are going to gain anything! I would not waste my time.

 

[Kirby]

Believe it or not, a thinner head gasket can add .25 to .5 to the compression ratio, such as going from 8.5 to 9.0. Not a lot, but it is enough to add a few hp IF everything else is set up correctly. You also have to be certain that a thinner head gasket will not cause the valves to hit the piston.

Sorry, can't help you with the speicifics of your engine, I have never tried this on a BMW, only on go-cart engines!

 

[Big Daddy]

Kirby I concur with you, I guess what I was getting at is for the work involved it is a minimal gain. And like you said, I would worry about valve clearences.

 

[Kirby]

Yeah, agreed, usually this only makes sense if other mods are being done to the engine as a planned build up, like rods, pistons, intake, etc.

 

[titan74]

i see, so there must be a minimum size decrease here. I am eyeing for the one sold at VACMotorsports. There is actually a need to replace the existing head gasket soon due to wear, so I just thought Ill put in this config. thnx for the insights