Head Gasket - Maintenance from the Inside

Anthony Fontanelle
January 10, 2008

There are a lot of factors to be considered in vehicle maintenance. All of the systems’ components must be in great working condition. These auto parts must not exhibit physical damages or its back to the replacement auto parts shop for the owner. However, in hopes of reducing an owner’s visits to replacement shops, more and more automakers are now producing a range of quality parts. One of these parts is the head gasket.

The head gasket is strategically placed between the engine block and cylinder head in internal combustion applications. Its function is to prevent several forms of leakages in the engine from happening. It does this by sealing the cylinders, the combustion chambers, and the oil and coolant passageways between the engine block and the cylinder head. By doing so, the head gasket also guarantees that there is maximum compression of the oil and coolant within the cylinders. Tightly and securely sealing the cylinders is one of the most crucial operations necessary for a car to demonstrate laudable road performance, which is why a head gasket is one of those auto parts that drivers simply cannot do without.

Though it promises to help out in engine maintenance from the inside, retirement is still its only option in the end. After all, the nature of its work is quite exhausting. Common reasons that often bring about the eventual break-down of a head gasket include overheating of the aluminum cylinder heads which results to over-compression as aluminum has a high thermal expansion rate. This later leads to a blow-up of the head gasket. To prevent this from occurring, the surfaces of aluminum-made head gaskets are often covered with a non-stick coating like Teflon.

However, the Teflon coating can also do so much in preventing the head gasket from blowing. Long service will still take its toll and when that happens, car owners should immediately run to an auto parts store to get a replacement. Its function is crucial to engine performance and so a broken head gasket must not be left sitting inside the engine. It will only end up making things much, much worse.

Source:  Amazines.com