my book says to use sealer on my head gaskets, what kind?........and does anyone have a simple diagram of the placement of piston rings?, the 2 in the book seem to contradict each other

 

I am sure Permatex has the gasket stuff you are supposed to use. The piston rings should be as follows.....
Top ring - compression
Second ring - compression
Third ring - Oil scraper

Do not have the top compression ring end line up with the second compression ring or you will get blow by a lot easier. There should be info on this in a manual if you like reading how to "exactly" space the ring ends from each other.

 

For the heads, you should only want a t-h-i-n amount around the water ports.

 

Sorry VW! But do NOT apply anything to either mating surface or the gasket. Make sure both surfaces are perfectly flat ,clean, and have no deep scratches. Use a quality gasket like a Fel-Pro, installed in the correct direction and tighten the head in the proper sequence to the required torque specs.

And the only place you want to use any kind of sealer is on the bolts themselves, per required installation procedure.

 

after i posted this a friend of mine that works at the dealer asked a mechanic and said that i should get some spray copper and it will make the gaskets sticky and help prevent the water jackets from leaking....

 

You do not want to put anything on the gasket. The gasket is made in a way so that after you torque the head down the gasket will not move. When you put something on it, it acts like a lubricant and the gasket will float (for lack of a better word) and that will cause it to fail quicker. Both surfaces , flat, no deep scratches, clean and dry. Use lacquer thinner or denatured alcohol. I worked in my Fathers auto parts store and in the machine shop for 20+ years, not one person in that shop would put anything on a head gasket.

 

^^ My engine guy told me re recommends a thin, thin film around the water ports; otherwise, like you stated, no sealant anywhere.

 

This is the way I understand it:

Fel Pro specifies no sealant for their Perma-Torque/Print-o-Seal type modern head gaskets, so I just followed their spec and put them on dry like zman says.

On the old composition gasket sandwiched with metal crush rings around the cylinder bores (Victor Core type), you could put those on dry, but most old school mechanics I worked with recommended using Copper Coat or something like it to help seal the water passages.

The re-usable metal type always require a sealant.

However, the best advice is to always follow the manufacturer's specs.

 

here's a nice description of 3 different types that felpro offers.
http://www.federal-mogul.com/en/Afte...roHeadGaskets/

 

well i put them on today and i used the copper coat which says that it is specifically made for head gaskets....i might have messed up tho, when i put one of the heads on, one end wasnt on right and when i moved it right it looked like some of the copper peeled off some.......hopefully all is well, i should have taken it off tho and cleaned it and tried again