spoon 2layer headgasket in stock b16b?


Cheers for the replys lads, made me mind up anyway im gunnna go for a spoon headgasket mainly because im a bit of a spoon whore haha and just to test it out. Il be using either a toda replica manifold or a skunk2 alpha manifold, aem v2 intake, head ported with new valve seals and mapped on a neo
 
So that's about 11-12 thou thinner (I think)
That will give a noticeable rise in compression, but not a huge rise,

The gained compression would make more power but probably not noticeable with out the right supporting mods and a good map.

Works out about 0.4 compression points from the spoon gasket. Hard to believe it would make any difference with stock cam but if dave felt a strong difference....
Personally I'd only use one to "tune" the compression of a high comp build to better suit whichever cam I was using.
It's pretty common for people to use ek9 Pistons in an otherwise stock b18c for the extra compression(12.5-1ish) but the gains aren't very big due to the lack of cam.
 
Cheers for the replys lads, made me mind up anyway im gunnna go for a spoon headgasket mainly because im a bit of a spoon whore haha and just to test it out. Il be using either a toda replica manifold or a skunk2 alpha manifold, aem v2 intake, head ported with new valve seals and mapped on a neo

Be cool to hear your views on it once it's in, bearin in mind the headwork your having and the map.
 
Good luck with the build and let us know when its all done. If i was going to do it again id go for the tegiwa manifold and air box.. Or mugen air box up to you. Ill be putting a spoon head gasket on my dc2 if ever or whenever the head comes off.
 
A head skim and oem gasket is a better option,

Ensures your head is flat and will seal well
 
Will keep yeahs all updated on the build and what figures i make with it. Would love to do the exact same and use a oem h/g then we would all know the differences the two different headgaskets make
 
I still think the difference you've seen has more to do with better fuel burning rather than the head gasket. You can't really say it's the gasket what made the difference since you've made other changes at the same time. Also, when you say the car didn't feel any different that's very subjective, as a slight loss of power each day will not be noticeable (but will accumulate over time), so it will FEEL the same, while once the oil burning problem was sorted there was probably a sudden jump in performance. I'm not saying it doesn't work or that it doesn't make sense, I just find it hard to believe that you would actually notice difference by just replacing HG for Spoon. You would need to replace the head gasket ONLY to be able to say it made such and such difference.
 
With having experienced issues with most aftermarket headgaskets I tend to stick with OEM Honda headgaskets only.
 
I still think the difference you've seen has more to do with better fuel burning rather than the head gasket. You can't really say it's the gasket what made the difference since you've made other changes at the same time. Also, when you say the car didn't feel any different that's very subjective, as a slight loss of power each day will not be noticeable (but will accumulate over time), so it will FEEL the same, while once the oil burning problem was sorted there was probably a sudden jump in performance. I'm not saying it doesn't work or that it doesn't make sense, I just find it hard to believe that you would actually notice difference by just replacing HG for Spoon. You would need to replace the head gasket ONLY to be able to say it made such and such difference.

that a matter of your opinion bud and that's cool but on my b18c I only done it because the head was coming off, on my b16b the engine was standard apart from a AEM V2 and the spoon head gasket, its how I bought the car. it made 191bhp on the dyno... now im not one to really go on about chasing figures on the dyno but my 2nd ek9 was totally stock, and made 180bhp. It drove nice but it felt flat building up to vtec compared to the other engines iv had with the spoon gasket. 2/3 engines I had, had spoon gaskets and I feel it does makes a noticeable difference to performance. Fact not opinion... I have a youtube video of my first ek9 with the spoon gasket and aem v2 intake. ill post it up if I can find it, i can definitely tell when vtec comes in that it had more grunt.
 
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I know this video isn't really much to go on as its just sound, I was abit slow with the camera and at the end my battery ran out.. but turn up and have a listen

 
that a matter of your opinion bud and that's cool but on my b18c I only done it because the head was coming off, on my b16b the engine was standard apart from a AEM V2 and the spoon head gasket, its how I bought the car. it made 191bhp on the dyno... now im not one to really go on about chasing figures on the dyno but my 2nd ek9 was totally stock, and made 180bhp. It drove nice but it felt flat building up to vtec. so 2/3 engines I had, had spoon gaskets and I feel it does makes a noticeable difference to performance. Fact not opinion... I have a youtube video of my first ek9 with the spoon gasket and aem v2 intake. ill post it up if I can find it, you can definitely tell when vtec comes in that it had more grunt.

Sorry no facts here in terms of the effect of the Spoon HG - so engine A with a Spoon HG and AEM intake made 191bhp while engine B that was completely stock made 180:
A) Even two stock engines can have a good few bhp between them, especially two 15+ years old engines.
B) How do you know that the AEM did not account for 90% of the power difference you saw?
C) the conditions of the two tests probably were not the same, was at least the same dyno used?
Again, I'm not having a go at you, not saying that Spoon HG is crap and worthless mod, merely questioning the gains you claim you've seen as I believe other factors are likely to account for or contribute to the increase/difference in power you've seen.
If you really wanted to see the effect of Spoon HG on a stock motor you would need to do a dyno run on two cars, take head off one of them and, refit with Spoon gasket and do another Dyno run with the two cars. The unmodified car (our control) should account for any differences in test conditions and then the modified car would hopefully show a measured increase in power. Now I know no one (bar Spoon themselves maybe) will actually do this sort of testing, especially considering that in order for it to have any statistical significance you'd have to repeat it on a number of cars, but that's how you'd obtain factual data, all you're talking about is your butt dyno feeling a difference. A cool observation, certainly worth having a discussion about but should not be misrepresented as a fact.
 
Im not one for dyno figures it doesn't interest me much , but I was using it as a reference as you cant feel physically what my car went like, maybe a bad reference on my part. the figures are going to change per dyno, and depending on conditions and lots of other factors :blabla: but I have tried the spoon gasket TWICE and the performance increased to a noticeable level on the road that was more the FACT bud. And im pretty sure a AEM v2 wouldn't of given me most of that power, im sure it was more down to the raise in compression.
 
Haha, I can see I won't convince you otherwise so I'm out before it gets too heated :D You have your opinion and I have mine, the truth is as always probably somewhere in the middle lets leave it at that. I didn't mean to offend, it's my scientific education getting the better of me when people misinterpret feelings for facts ;) As long as you're happy with your car that's the main thing! :nice:
 
Its cool bud no worries i dont mind a debate from time to time lol. We are prob both right, i was only trying to get people to see my point that the gasket made a difference for me. We've had a Good ol natter here going back through the post lol
 
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