2.0 Cylinder Gaskets, Should they be used? Options

[jack20]

Hello,
I had leaking pushrod tube seals and dropped the engine to make the job easier.
I decided to pull the heads to check condition. I’ve done quite a bit of reading about whether or not gaskets should be used between the cylinder and case and between the cylinder and head. Some posters point to a service bulletin stating not to use gaskets.

I have metal spacers/gaskets between the heads and cylinders. I think this engine has been rebuilt once before I got it. It runs well but it’s not as quick as another 914 2.0 I had years ago. Maybe the other car had higher compression and no gasket? I’m wondering if this metal gasket should be there. I haven’t checked for a gasket between the cylinder and case. My 356 has a thin copper gasket between the cylinder and case.

Can anyone shed some light in this?

Thanks in advance,

Jack

[jack20]

I just wanted to thank everyone for responding to my post on whether or not to use head gaskets when I put my heads back on.

The consensus is not to use the gaskets. I don’t know how many miles the existing gaskets have on them and since I now know they’re laminated I would want to replace them. I would rather just buy new base gaskets and eliminate a potential problem.

I’ve done some measurements and determined that my engine is totally stock. Bore and stroke match the engine specs found on the Pelican site.
The German pistons are dished.
The head gasket is ~ .8 and the base gasket is .2mm equaling 1mm of total deck height.

So my choices are to replace the laminated gaskets and substitute a 1mm base shim for the .2mm shim or to buy new .8mm laminated gaskets and re-use the .2mm shim.

Some of you suggested I measure the volume of the combustion chamber to determine the compression ratio. If I do that I will also need to pull a piston to get the dish volume. The heads are stock and the pistons are stock. I can’t imagine I would find much deviation from the stock comp ratio of 7:6 if I do either of the suggested options.

I believe I’m down to these two choices but I tend to over-think things that are new to me.

Please let me know if my logic is flawed. In the meantime, thanks again for all your input. I really appreciate it.

Jack