which head gasket?

[bigblue2]

after getting the head for the car i've been doing bits at it slowly and now its ready to go back together, the problem i'm having now is finding out which gasket i need for the head spoke to a few suppliers and even when given them the the engine code they still say there are different ones,they refer to them as one notch two notch etc and tell me the only way to find which one i need is to measure any liner that is exposed above the block, is this true i'd never heard this b4,and also is it worth skimming the heads on the xud before putting back on there seems to be some different opinions on this, many thanks

[mjb]

My personal rule about buying parts is this:

If in doubt regarding something that's not easily changed, take your VIN to the dealers and get one from their parts dept


The inlet manifold gasket for a V6 is only a quid so I can't see it being horribly expensive. Sometimes they have very reasonable prices (nobody can match their price on D9 clutch slave cylinders!), sometimes they are horrendously expensive, but at least they're not Nissan

[jasper5]

From personal, painful, experience, I would concur with mjb, take your vin number and get one from the dealer, I would add that you would be wise to take the old gasket with you.
There are notches in the head gasket at the edge, part of it sticks out from the block that has the notches in it, but I would still take your old gasket with you.

I would never fit a cylinder head without having it skimmed.