I was reading through the The Official 2nd Gen FAQ and Performance Thread and it said that i could gain a .5-1.0 increase in my compression ratio by removing the middle layer of the MLS head gasket.

Just wondered if there would be any negative side affects from this, and if not, then how hard is it to do? And also is there anything i should do to my neon before i do this?

 

i have heard that too. but ask yourself this, by removing a layer of your cylinder head gasket, how much longer will that gasket last?? it needs all those layers for a reason. if you want more power to your motor, get a stroker kit for it. or a turbo. my guess is you will do more damage than good by hacking your head gasket. just my two cents.

 

you could also decrease your compression by making a spacer to put where the headgasket goes.... you will need some serious CNC/machine shop work and two head gaskets but it would drop it quite a bit then YAY TURBO!

 

To remove the middle layer you need to drill the rivets (very carefully) out of the head gasket, then carefully separate the layers and remove the center portionof the MLS. When putting the gasket back on even though its seperated it will stay in place since one (might be two, i dont remember for sure since its been a while) of the head bolt holes has a raised edge. Plus, once you have all the headbolts going through it its not going anywhere. You can expect a CR increase of .5 up to 1.0, but it will more then likely be .5. The safer, better option, is decking/shaving the head which allows you to get even more icreased compression, or just buy some nice high compression pistons or use 1st Gen DOHC 2.0 pistons. As for if there are negative side affects, most people will say the risk of blowing the seperated gasket is negligable.


Its called shimming the head and there not really hard to make at all.

 

Thanks for all the feedback.