Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

That's why the two OE flat sided washers have slots on the bottom - to stop them spinning. I believe you can dimple the ARP washers on the underside with a punch to achieve the same effect but it may be better to just retain the two OE washers and use them in the positions where a flat side is required

Update: Got a new AJUSA head gasket, put it in, worked like a charm. the new gasket worked as it was supposed to. interestingly, with the new gasket the fibre area was essentially the same thickness as the fire rings, like in the old copper/steel head gaskets
in the gasket that caused me so much grief, the fire rings were thicker than the fibre, so you had to squeeze the rings a lot before there was enough pressure on the fibre to seal the coolant.
the only explanation i can see is that I got a defective head gasket. i didn't do anything differently, . perhaps one side of the fire rings was thicker to begin with, from defective manufacturing, and not the result of what i was doing.
i'll try to see if i can return it to the supplier.
thanks everybody
Carlos

Hi Carlos,
What brand of head gasket was the first one you used.
Cheers,
Colin.

cbguerrajr wrote:Update: Got a new AJUSA head gasket, put it in, worked like a charm. the new gasket worked as it was supposed to. interestingly, with the new gasket the fibre area was essentially the same thickness as the fire rings, like in the old copper/steel head gaskets
in the gasket that caused me so much grief, the fire rings were thicker than the fibre, so you had to squeeze the rings a lot before there was enough pressure on the fibre to seal the coolant.
the only explanation i can see is that I got a defective head gasket. i didn't do anything differently, . perhaps one side of the fire rings was thicker to begin with, from defective manufacturing, and not the result of what i was doing.
i'll try to see if i can return it to the supplier.
thanks everybody
Carlos