Hello all!! I was doing some work on my 56 sunliner last weekend and i noticed that the drivers side head gasket is not installed correctly. i bought this car about 15 months ago and have put around 2000 miles on it. the car does not run hot. I live in Texas and we have some serious heat here!! the tab on the gasket is pointing towards the firewall and the passenger side tab is pointing towards the radiator. so my question is???????????? should i leave it alone and will it be ok????? 

What follows is copied and pasted from John Mummert's web site @ Ford-Y-Block.com in his section titled Y-Block Assembly Errors:

Head gaskets. The 2 head gaskets used on a Y-Block are identical. It might seem that the same face of the gasket would go against the block and the opposite face would go against the head on each side. This is not the case. What is critical is that the open coolant holes are at the back of the head and the blocked portion of the gasket is at the front. Look for the word FRONT on the gasket and place it at the front even if it looks wrong. This places 1 of the gaskets face up and one face down. Notice that there is a square corner at one end of the gasket, this must be at the front of the engine. This can be checked without removing the heads. If you are having overheating problems check for these square corners at the top front corner of the head near the intake gasket.

Hope this helps.   

NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

the square corners is why i noticed it. the drivers side is indeed not installed correctly. the car runs great and never gets over 190. the square on the driver side is at the back of the head towards the top of the engine closest to the intake manifold. if it continues to run cool i guess i will just leave it alone. supposed to be 97 here tomorrow and i plan on driving it to work. im just worried if it is ok to leave it like that? will it eventually haunt me when im far away from home? thanks so much for your response! Marlon

I'd pull the head and fix the gasket. Even if it's running fine, I'd run a compression check, see what the idle and cruise vacumn is, and check the timing before I pulled it down. That way, if you see something you don't like, you'll know in advance what you had. If the compression is good, and the vacumn steady, you can have a look at the bores and the valves on one side, and just put it back together. If they're not, you'll know what to look at, and whether to pull the other head. Maybe you've been lucky so far, but that's not going to last if that gasket is backwards.

Wasn't it Dirty Harry who said "do you feel lucky?" You saw how it came out for those guys.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

If the cooling system is good, it will overcome what could be a radiator heating problem with the head gasket(s) installed backwards.  Backwards installed head gaskets on the Y will promote some overheating of the rear cylinders so my recommendation is to replace the reversed gasket.
 
You didn’t mention if the gaskets were steel shim or composite.  If they are steel shim and have been in place for awhile, then it’s possible for the blocked portion of the gasket to be eroded thru and passing coolant there.  I have come across an instance on a 390 Ford where the installer cut open the blocked portions of the head gaskets thinking it was a manufacturing defect and in that case, the engine overheated.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Miker's recommendations are always good ones.

In pulling the one head look for a couple of other things to get a handle on the previous tear-down work by others.  Orienting the head gasket incorrectly suggests that the mechanic was not aware of the ins-and-outs on y-block Fords.

Check the lengths of the pushrods to make sure that they're all the same original application.  Also, look at the casting letters / numbers on the rib of each rocker arm.  As you may know, the ECG 6564s are the 1.54:1 ratio that were supplied by Ford in '56 and '57.  Any EANs are '54-'55 and 5751066s are '58-'64 all of which are 1.43:1 ratio.  Any other numbers on the ribs indicate that they are aftermarket replacements and likely 1.43:1 ratio.  IF replacement rockers were used, don't be surprised if they're mixed ratio.  -I've seen several N.O.S. Ford supplied re-manufactured rocker arm assemblies where they were mixed ratio!

Check the length and location of the cylinder head bolts to determine the correctness of their installation.  Check the length of the exhaust manifold bolts, too.  You may have a longer one if you've got a power steering pump involved.

As has been covered in other threads in the archive, Ford did not use exhaust manifold gaskets in original y-block production.  Every replacement gasket set has these included.  Many of us believe that the use of exhaust manifold gaskets can cause uneven heat transfer from the cylinder head to the exhaust manifold that can result in cracks where the exhaust manifold ears bolt on.

Hope this helps.   


NoShortcuts
a.k.a. Charlie Brown
near Syracuse, New York

the chances of winning the lottery may be a million to one but people still buy the ticket.that may be the odds of something happening to your engine but you will still change it.

you guys are the best!!! thanks so much for the replies and the excellent advise! gaskets will be here in the morning! i will let you all know what i find. have a great weekend everyone! thanks again, Marlon.....

pulled the head today and did not like what i saw. the 2 long head bolts were next to each other in the second and third bolt holes closest on top. the cylinder walls look good, compression was good, vacuum steady at idle around 18. car had a still shim head gasket that was indeed backwards. also, the engine does smoke a little at idle. all of the valve seals were not seated and they just seem to be to big. they were all riding at the top of the valve stems. there was also visual evidence that the 2 long head bolts were bottomed out. so!!!!!!! the other head is coming off and to the machine shop they will go!!!!!! both heads seemed to be stamped ECZ-C and look to have big valves so thats a plus!!! car also had a couple of slightly bent pushrods. ill have to dig some out of my stash. car needs plug wires so this is the time to do that also!! thanks my friends!!! ill keep u posted, Marlon.