I will eventually replace the head with one from RRM. Should I replace the oem gasket with a little bit thicker one? to help later on down the road?

 

Why thicker? Do you what a lower compression?

 

Would it be helpful at all to have lower compression with more mods and eventual turbo?

 

Yeah, but if you lower the compression now, your car runs like ****. It was tuned for stock compression. You want to lower it WHEN you go turbo, not early.

Contact Cometic Gasket - they'll probably run you a lot less money than RPW would. And they'll do whatever thickness you want.

 

I'll seriously doubt you'd wanna mess with changing the compression. What are the Lancer's? 9.0/ 9.1 / 9.2? I wanna bump up the compression on my Civic for it's turbo build. Eagles and forged pistons. It's all in the tune...

 

Lancers are 9.5:1.

 

You seriously doubt this why exactly?

He could easily drop the compression down to 8:1 or 8.5:1 and be very well setup for boost.

 

Cuz unless he uses the crappy FMU (10:1/12:1/etc) for his FM, he won't have to worry about it with a good tune. But seeing how that most turbo'd Lancers going the FMU route, for added protection I can see him using a thinner one.

Dang aftermarket manufacturers need a cheaper, more reliable FMU for these cars. D@ng Civic I have can used a slotted/chipped ecu and tune using a free software program (Crome-not Pro). Running 9.5:1 will be my goal with Forged internals, flat valves, and a taking the thin middle layer out of the 3-layer gasket. Enough about me...

When you do get the P&P head from RRM, let us know your FM setup and we'll tell you what route can safely get you to your power goals...

 

FMU or not, it's a good idea to do it. Higher compression is just not needed on a boosted car. And it raises the chace of knock and engine failure. Why not just run safe?

I'm tuning my Subaru using a computer and with no FMU, but I still know it's safer to lower the compression (I'll be using 8.5:1).

 

Safe, yes! Best for optimal output, no. Give and take...

 

I would rather be safe, then sorry. Especially investing all of that money into my car. Reliability is key to me. What are you refering to as in: FMU and FM? Fuel Management Unit and Fuel Management?? I havent quite picked up all the lingo yet.

 

Do NOT increase the thickness of your header gaskets

Thicker gaskets are made for turbos that will run more then 7psi (which is the safest maximum for stock compression), The thicker the gasket the more turbo psi you can run due to the lower compression ratio of the engine, if anyone can explain this better be my guest.

 

I think 9 PSI is the max on stock compression. There's a trade off with lowering the compression and that comes in terms of off-boost power.

 

i am running 17 psi on the stock head gasket...
the engine is fully built, no issue at all....^^

 

I think it's a good idea for a thicker head gasket only to get more boost pressure into the cylinders. But your gonna need some fuel mods.