Briggs head gasket, which side against block?

tigercat

tigercat

Well-Known Member
I'm replacing the head gasket on my Craftsman 21 HP yard tractor. I blew the head gasket while mulching leaves last weekend. So I have the new gaskets and just noticed lettering on 1 side of the gasket and it's smooth on the other. Which side goes on the block or does it matter? Thanks guys!
 
I have always gone letter side up, but I don't think it makes much difference. Do not use a sealer of any kind on gasket. Tighten the screws down evenly by hand. Use a torque wrench and tighten head bolts in the right sequence. And do not turn one screw down completely before the others, as it may cause a warped cylinder head.

Just make sure that the head and cylinder are clean.
 
letters up. Thank you!

If I'm not dead then I plan to replace it sometime Saturday. Looks to be fairly simple to do. 2 bolts on carb, 3 bolts to remove muffler & pipe, 8 on head. :)

These head gaskets seem to be a weak link on Briggs OHV engines.
 
On the head gasket i just put on my 16 hp briggs, it can only be put on 1 way. Mine had 2 alignment pins that were on opposite sides and angled so it only went on 1 way.
 
Right on pontiac. I just done the job on my engine, it runs sweet and I ran it over an hour doing leaves, The gasket on this machine will fit only one way, Like you said, the pins are fixed and the bolt pattern in not symmetrical, so the gasket on this machine only fits 1 way. I don't remember which way it went on, up or down in relation to the stamping.
 
tigercat said:
Right on pontiac. I just done the job on my engine, it runs sweet and I ran it over an hour doing leaves, The gasket on this machine will fit only one way, Like you said, the pins are fixed and the bolt pattern in not symmetrical, so the gasket on this machine only fits 1 way. I don't remember which way it went on, up or down in relation to the stamping.
Click to expand...

This was a waste of a thread, you didn't have the time to look at the gasket to note that the shape was not symmetrical, you couldn't find the time to note if the number was upside down when fitting that may have help others here, ya nice one...!:thumbdown:
 
EngineMan said:
This was a waste of a thread
Click to expand...

I had the Briggs & Stratton gaskets in my hand, then noticed the difference from one side to another. I didn't pay attention to the bolt pattern at the time, just the gasket was different from one side to another. On auto engines it does matter which way they go on as many are stamped "up" etc. So I made the post after an exhaustive search that would not answer my question. Only after I was hands on the motor did I realize it goes on only one way.

So if I wasted your 30 seconds of life reading a bull crap topic, oh well, sorry about that! I will try harder to please ya next time! :confused2:
 
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