What is Head Gasket

What is Head Gasket

A Head Gasket is the sealing part between the bottom block and cylinder head.

Very important for a car is the head gasket, it provides an air and liquid tight seal between the head and the engine block. The head gasket can be made of various materials that require high standards. For example, the gasket must be resistant to high temperatures, it must be resistant to combustion gases, oil, coolant and the materials the block and head are made of. Due to the different pressures and temperatures, the gasket is subject to varying and heavy loads.

The head gaskets can be divided into 2 categories; head gaskets that are made up of several layers of steel plate and gaskets that consist of an iron carrier, which is covered with another material.

The middle layer of a head gasket is also called the stopper. This is a corrugated plate made of spring steel, which is intended to seal the combustion space (s).

When tightening the head bolts, the stopper is pressed flat, the tightening torque of the bolts determines how much.The head gasket retains its elastic effect because the stopper is made of spring steel. After a certain number of revolutions, the gasket has stabilized and the elastic properties will (almost) not change.

Head gaskets consisting of several layers can be composed of 2 to 5 layers. The more layers there are, the more elastic the gasket is.

A gasket is usually provided with iron with a layer of cork around it, and at the cylinders often iron sealing rings