Hi All,

http://www.acl.com.au/web/acl00056.nsf/ ... enDocument

"Q7. Which way does the cylinder head shim go?

Answer
Cylinder head shims are fitted between the cylinder block and head gasket. The only exception is Ford EA, EB, ED, EF applications reference number BR520SS. This shim is fitted between the cylinder head and the cylinder head gasket.

An oxygen sensor safe sealant such as Hylomar must be used when installing a cylinder head shim. It is also necessary to retension the cylinder head after using Hylomar on the cylinder head shim."

Probably a silly question, but it doesn't mention EL in that list - I'm probably just being paranoid, but I presume there are no major differences here ?

I'll be fitting 2 AU metal headgaskets together (using copper gasket), followed by a head shim and then the head sitting on top of it all. The 2 AU HG's equate to slightly thicker than a standard HG - plus being metal they should be stronger...the headshim is to bring down compression (from 9.4:1 to ~8.4:1) for turbo application.

Now my question is - when using a headshim (aka decompression plate), I have typically always heard that you should run a HG on top and a HG on the underside - however I have also heard that this head shim I have does not require 2 HG's (I'm using 2 AU metal HGs purely to make-up thickness - plus I have heard of a crowd doing the same thing to their turbo EA/EB that ran 10.5 at Calder on Friday night) - has anyone used decomp plates before ? If so, for this kind of application ?

Thanks,
Steve