Cylinder head gasket design?

[Tony Tee]

Been examining an used cylinder head gasket from a 440 and noticed that the water jacket ports on the block and cylinder head are not lined up with each other..And that leaves the gasket itself limiting the flow of coolant. So is there a brand of gasket that cools better? Or are people modifying their gaskets? Or is it best to leave the gaskets alone ?

 

[Tony Tee]

Been examining an used cylinder head gasket from a 440 and noticed that the water jacket ports on the block and cylinder head are not lined up with each other..And that leaves the gasket itself limiting the flow of coolant. So is there a brand of gasket that cools better? Or are people modifying their gaskets? Or is it best to leave the gaskets alone ?

 

[440Coronet500]

Of the BB head gaskets I have used (FelPro) they were the same as you have shown. Do not modify the gaskets, use them as they are. 440'

 

[Rick62]

In addition to cooling the purpose of the larger holes in the block is to remove sand after the casting process. They need to be large to get the sand out of the casting. Engineers decide how much is optimal for cooling. Iron blocks are sand castings.

 

[451Mopar]

Those small slits are just to prevent air pockets in the block.
The water flow is supposed to flow from the front of the block to the back of the block, then up through the back of the head to the front of the head.
Opening those holes will by-pass water going to the back of the block.
Doing so will make it appear the engine cools better if measuring temp at the thermostat, but the back of the block will be really hot.

 

[66Satellite47]

Also notice that various blocks have different cooling holes that expose more of the slit to pass coolant depending on the expected cooling demand by the head which the engineers anticipated.