I couldn't really tell because of the angles on your pics, but it looks like there may be tiny holes between 5/6 and 7/8 at the top and then at the bottom of 6/7 to the right of the round larger hole. I'm sure I don't see any between 5/6 and 7/8 at the bottom.

There may be a tiny one where I was talking about the square above and right of 8. I'm not 100% sure if these are all holes or just stain/discoloration though. I looked in the book a bit and didn't see anything about them. Are there supposed to be holes, but mine are clogged? The gasket does have holes there.

What were you thinking from my pics? I figured in the last 30 years someone else probably got into it. Do you think they just put the gasket on backward? Did I overlook something?






Edit: I spent like 15 minutes comparing our pics and they seem to be the same to me, I must be overlooking something.

Thanks again.

 

IIRC the small holes in the head gaskets go over the finger-sized holes in the block & heads, I don't remember about the large passages.

You might ask in the 335 forum and see if any engine gurus there stop by....

I'll look at this more tomorrow, it's bedtime...

 

Pics of the other side
Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums - View Single Post - Pulled off head, advised to come here

We dropped off the heads to get them fluxed, and surfaced. Unfortunately 2 studs broke off on in the head from the exhaust manifold even though I removed them with the head, and sprayed them 2-3 times over 6 hours today. They seemed to be coming out ok, but broke low in the hole, so that's more money. Gonna replace a bunch of the bolts/studs.

 

I've seen worse looking heads come back from the machine shop looking great!

All the best on your heads.

 

The "small holes" you're seeing I don't think are holes, I'm gonna guess stains or debris or some such.

I looked through all my engine rebuild pictures, here's a closer shot of 5-6:







I was hoping I still had my old head gaskets but I think I remember tossing 'em after quite some time, that was before I was as involved here on FTE as I am today.

The coolant flows through the square openings at the front of the engine and back down into the block via all those other passageways.

There are no square openings on the back of the engine BUT the head gaskets can easily be put on backwards, thereby covering up those square holes.

The heads have got holes on both ends, this is because a head is a head is a head, there is no concept of left-sided head or right-sided head, either head can fit on either side.

(What you'll need to pay attention to, though, are the accessory attachment holes drilled into the ends; are they, in fact, all drilled in the same places? For things like power steering pump, AC compressor, alternator, whatever.)

Here's another shot of the LH side of my engine first taken apart, you can see how the hole in head gasket matches the hole in the front of the block:






Here's another shot of 1-2-3, I think the head gaskets on there had holes in 'em to accommodate other engines that actually had holes there?






As for comparison of your & my heads, what I was referring to is that your valves are WHITE and you've got what looks like a lot of scale built up around 'em.

That tells me "water in the combustion chambers."

Here's another shot of one of my heads:





Here's something else to look for (although I don't think it'll affect your cooling at all) - sunken valves, this will be caused by unleaded fuel being used in an engine not designed to accommodate it.









See how the larger (intake) vales are raised? That's how they ALL should be.

The exhaust valve seats get burned and deteriorate, resulting in sunken valves (which can result in operational problems as the rest of the valvetrain isn't designed to operate with valve stems extending so high).

The head rebuilder guy can install hardened valve seats.



Here is something else to look for, these heads apparently commonly crack in between valves (the green arrow here):