1990 Prelude Head Gasket Not Lining up?

I have taken my head off, gotten it milled, and now I am installing it
back on the block, but the new felpro head gasket looks like it will
partially cover some of the cooling ports on the head and block. Is
this normal? I Looked up the part number and confirmed I have the right
part through a few sites, but it is the only thing I can think of that
would cause the gasket holes to not line up exactly with the holes in
the head and block. I don't have the old gasket to compare to either...

 

1. why did you have the head milled?
2. why aren't you using an oem gasket?

if the holes won't align, it's not the right gasket. end of story.

 

I had the head milled to make sure I would get a good seal on the head
gasket. I am using a Felpro gasket because it will be less likely to
fail and the people at the machine shop i took it to recommended it.
Most of the holes do line up, but the ones that do not are a few
cooling holes. The cylinder holes, head bolt holes all line up.
Looking up all other "compatible" gaskets, thay all have the same holes
as the one I have, Including an OEM gasket I found. I am doing this
from pictures, and can easily see that tey are exactly the same as the
Felpro one I bought. My thoughts are that the gasket covers some of
the hole in order to possibly restrict water flow and prevent the
gasket from failing the way it did before.

I also thought it may be a different, better design, but I don't know
if companies do this on gaskets. The engine code is B21A1
Thanks
-Aaron

 

FWIW, I've replaced head gaskets on other makes before and noticed the same
sort of thing, but the passages were completely closed by the head gasket.
Each time I had the old gasket and I saw it was the same there. But I think
in every case the passage was only in one side (block or head) and not in
both.

Mike

 

I would go to a Honda dealership parts dept and check it up against an OEM
one there.

Restrict water flow? WTF? I highly don't think that is the case.

 

too late now, but you should never do that unless the head is either
warped or you have an erosion problem. it messes up the compression
ratio and can lead to valves striking piston crowns through insufficient
clearance. it's not much good for sealing either as it's hard to
machine aluminum to the surface finish necessary. the sealing surface
on oem heads are near mirror finish.

there are very few after market components that meet the quality
standards of honda oem, and even fewer that exceed them. if this was a
ford or chevy, aftermarket is the way to go because oem is /so/ poor,
but honda??? stick with oem.

you think correct - smaller holes do modify coolant flow. it's hard to
get an even temperature throughout the block & head and modifying the
flow in different areas makes it easier to achieve.