I just put my flat tops into my N42 block. Is it normal for the piston to go a little past the top of block about .021 of an in. :paranoid: Thanks

I forgot to mention that these are flat tops and rods from an F54 280zx block!

Also does anyone know the thickness of a felpro head gasket?

Seriously, anyone know!:disappoin

Yes the pistons should stick up, but only about .003" over the deck. The rods shouldn't be any different between an N42 or F54 block, both have 130mm rods and the same pin height. The deck height should be the same also. Makes me think that somebody surfaced your block at some point.

Fel-Pro sucks IME, if you want .040" gasket (which is what the Fel-Pro is), use an HKS 1mm gasket. Do some searching on Fel-Pro if you want some backup on the sucky part.

I have heard of HKS gaskets but where do you buy them? Arent they metal gasket? My block is straight but is not uniform for a metal head gasket! From what I understand is that the block has to be perfect for metal head gaskets. On mine there is a little scoring on it from coolent over a period of time. Right now it is a little hard to explain as I had 20 too much to drink! Day off so to say!

I am definitely going to do some more measuring on the pistons and block deck.

My pistons went about .020 above the block also. As far as I could tell it was all stock when I pulled it. F54 block. I have also been using the "Felpro" gasket going on 450 miles with 9.65:1 compression. I guess I've been lucky. Or those ARP head studs are working.

Hey ED, so that is normal for an F54 block also. I am going to be using that P79 head I have been talking about in the other posts. I am just worried about these pistons going over and smacking my new valves:paranoid: .

You can get the HKS from Nissan Comp, or from various HKS dealers. A search on google will probably locate some for you. I'm betting MSA and Black Dragon have them as well.

I got my deck height info from the lengine calculator. Shows .080 for deck height, and it's metric. Convert .080 mm to in, .0037" or something like that. One other caviat is that I SUCK at math, but I used an online calculator so it should be correct.

On my lengine.exe it says .030 deck height! Which lengine do you have.

I did a search on those head gaskets and I am not sure I want to do that, my wife is already getting pissed because I put too much money into it already, not to mention that she is jealous because I spend more time with the car than I do her . I told her I cant help it if I love my car more than youLOL.

Jmortenson, you have to hit the quick setup for an L28 on the lengine with a P79 head and flat top pistons. I dont know if that makes a difference but I just noticed that when I first pulled it up it says for an L24 block and an E31 head it has .080.

Right you are. I didn't pay attention. Which is why you can't trust my math, BTW. So .030mm = .0013 in. So maybe the calculator is wrong? Maybe that value is in inches and not mm? Don't know... EDIT- definitely can't be inches. Calculator must just be wrong.

If you don't want to go with super duper HKS gasket, I'd suggest get a Nissan gasket or get a Stone gasket. The stock thickness is .050, and they'll last a lot longer. I just use the Nissan gasket on my engine. I thought you were trying to up the compression with the shorter gasket, which is why I suggested the HKS.

Yeah I cant really afford one of those head gaskets! I just really want to get the car running right now. If you have read any of my other posts you will find out why I cant afford too much more on this engine after all the crap I went through with the N47 head and what not.

But back to the question at hand, is this deck height normal, I want to put the head on but need to find out if this is normal for the pistons to portrude that much?

Got another question, since I am putting on a P79 head and F54 pistons into an N42 block. Do I buy a head gasket for an 81 zx or do I buy a head gasket for a 78 280z? I was looking them up on partsamerica.com and they have different part #'s for the two.