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“Open-Deck” vs “Full-Deck” Cylinder Block Designs

Typical diesel engine blocks have cast and machined “decks” that support the top of the cylinders and evenly squash the head gaskets against the heads. In addition, most small V8 diesel engines have at least 6 head bolts (some shared with neighboring cylinders) in a full circle pattern around the top of the cylinder to more evenly provide the necessary head tightness on the head gasket. Both of these features can be seen in the Caterpillar 3208 whose cylinder block shown directly below was produced with 18 head bolts per head and a “full deck” that naturally supports the top of each cylinder, preventing the cylinders from expanding and crushing the head gasket, and flexing and working against the head gasket, further damaging the head gasket.

Unfortunately, the cheaper Detroit Diesel 8.2 engine block, as clearly illustrated in their brochure shown directly below, has neither the “full-deck” nor at least six head bolts per cylinder. The 8.2 has only 4 head bolts per cylinder and most of those head bolts are shared with neighboring cylinders for a total of ten head bolts for four cylinders (per head).

This brochure is available for viewing in its entirety by Academy Members as a PDF from our Academy eLibrary – Click Here – where all can see a scathing review of this brochure.

According to the above brochure, the Detroit Diesel 8.2 cylinder block was “designed using computer analysis” (Remember the adage “Garbage in, garbage out”), and was cast without the full head gasket mating surface (the “deck”) leaving the joined “Siamese” cylinders “free-standing”. The 8.2 head gasket mating surface is drastically reduced and consists of just the narrow top ends of the cylinders which consequently can provide only limited sealing surface which has proven to be seriously inadequate.

Detroit Diesel advertised that the reason that they did this was to provide “full length cylinder cooling”, While this design does provide slightly more even cooling of the cylinders, the far more compelling reason to use this design was to leave the top of the cylinder casting open and accessible to allow a more precise locating of the mold (or die) during the casting process which allowed the block to be cast thinner and consequently lighter and cheaper as it did not require as much safety margin thickness for “mold slip”.

This “Open Deck free-standing” cylinder design is not new. Most die cast aluminum blocks are of this design including the ill-fated Chevrolet Vega engine block pictured directly below, which also suffered from frequent head gasket failures at least partly because of this “Open Deck” free-standing design.

However, to be fair, some of the Vega’s head gasket problems stemmed from the block being cast entirely of aluminum which quickly expands far more then cast iron as it heats up. Since the cylinders ran at a higher temperature then the rest of the block, the cylinders expand more then the sides of the block and thus crush the head gasket against the head while the head is held against the block by the head bolts. And when the cylinders cooled, they would shrink and draw back away from the now crushed head gasket allowing it to leak and blow-out, especially if the engine was later put under heavy load when cold.

Efforts to press iron sleeves or liners into the aluminum Vega blocks has proven fruitless as the aluminum, now thinner and weaker after the boring which was needed to receive the liner, would expand more then the iron liner due to the heat at running temperature, allowing the liners to become loose in the aluminum block. Also, the reduced heat transfer from the liner often resulted in the liner overheating and developing hot spots leading to scoring of the pistons, rings and liner, and spot glazing of the liner.

Aluminum cylinder blocks cast with integral cast iron cylinder liners such as found in most outboard motors (see picture below where the cast-in iron liner can be seen surrounded by cast aluminum), suffer far less expansion then blocks cast entirely of aluminum like the Vega’s block. However when these Iron/aluminum blocks are overheated, the aluminum expands faster then the cast iron liner, often popping the aluminum loose from the cast iron liner making the block unusable due to its reduced ability to transfer heat from the iron liner to the aluminum before before being dissipated into the coolant. It should be noted that outboard motors with free standing cylinders are also prone to suffer blown head gaskets.

The Homelite/Bearcat 55hp 4-Cycle cylinder blocks were cast with integral heads eliminating the need for a head gasket. This design required that the pistons be installed and removed from the cylinders through the crankcase. For many years, Mercury Outboard 2-Cycle cylinder blocks were similarly cast with integral heads (shown below with the water jacket cover removed, exposing the top of the integral combustion chamber).

In the case of the Detroit Diesel 8.2, besides the drastically reduced head gasket sealing surface and the cylinder expanding and crushing the head gasket, an even more destructive deficiency exists due to the “Open Deck” free-standing design (shown directly below). The cylinders lack any connection between the tops of the cylinders and the engine block. This connection would normally be provided by the “deck” which would support the top of each cylinder and prevent the cylinder from flexing and moving back and forth side-to-side and working against the head gasket when the engine is running especially at higher power output.

This process is illustrated in the 4-Stroke Cycle diagram below where the piston can be seen first pushing against the right side of the cylinder during the compression stroke (see first yellow arrow – to the left) and then pushing even harder against the left side of the cylinder during the power stroke (see second yellow arrow – to the right). This pushing force is of course due to the changing angle of the connecting rod to the crankshaft’s rod journal as the crankshaft turns. Without a full “deck” to support the tops of the cylinders, the cylinders are allowed to flex back-and-forth, moved by the side loads induced by the piston, destroying the head gasket. This damage occurs even more quickly when the engine is lugged.

The Detroit Diesel 8.2L Service Manual #6SE421 describes in section 1.1 the procedure for checking the flatness of the top of the block with a straight edge after the head has been removed to determine if the block’s mating surface to the head (the “Firedeck”) is flat enough.

Note that additional transverse locations were required by later revisions to this test procedure.

If the top surface varies by more then .07mm (0.003″) transversely or more then .17mm (0.007″) longitudinally, the block must be “rejected”. When checked, blocks from engines that had blown head gaskets were frequently found to be beyond these limits and therefore could not be reused, relegating them to the scrap heap. Amazingly, the cylinders in these blocks were often found to be slightly bent to one side (as illustrated below), undoubtedly by the force of the pistons during power strokes as illustrated by the yellow arrow above. These bent cylinders were sometimes found to have cracked at their base where they joined the block.

This “Open Deck free-standing” design makes the 8.2 engine prone to head gasket failures and the resulting internal damage (described later) which tends to be catastrophic. Operation of the 8.2 at flank (full) speed in marine service is not wise unless the propeller is “under-pitched”, allowing the engine to run more easily. This will also be discussed later in this article under “How to keep the 8.2 alive”.

Although GM reportedly considered producing the 8.2 with a “Full Deck” after production was moved to GM’s automotive division in Canada, this apparently never came to fruition.

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FROM Dewey: "Well Huey, to me It looks like most of the articles on this website are written by very informed people, like boating instructors, boat designers, boat builders, riggers, electricians, fitters, marine repair technicians and marine surveyors. Writing such articles helps establish them as knowledgeable professionals. After all, this website was originally created by a school for marine technicians and marine surveyors. The website is growing in content every day. They even had to move to a bigger, more powerful server because the website's traffic has been growing exponentially."

FROM Louie: "I agree with everyone above. This site is quickly becoming the ultimate reference resource about every aspect of boats and ships for everyone from the beginning recreational boater to the seasoned professional mariner. I use the topic pages on the right sidebar to browse around the website. It's like a Junior Woodchucks' Guidebook for Boaters. Their Members' Library of over 300 popular and obscure books and over 200 magazine back issues that can be viewed online is fabulous. The Academy's magazine is especially informative. On top of that, there is the "Ask-An-Expert program for members where you can get an expert's answer to any of your boat questions. And a whole years membership is only $25. What a deal! I really love being part of this "Everything About Boats" community and help provide thousands of helpful articles free to the public. I think that I'll sit down right now and write an article about my experiences boating with my uncle."

FROM Scrooge: "You rave about this website like it was the best thing since sliced bread. Well, I think it stinks. Sure, it has a lot of good information for boaters, and they're adding more every day, but it will probably never be finished. Furthermore, I don't even own a boat. And I wouldn't have a boat even if someone gave me one. Boats are a waste of money and time and energy and money! They're just a hole in the water you pour money into. If you gave me a boat, I'd sell it quicker then you could say Baggywrinkle. Then I'd lock up the cash with all my other money so I could keep my eye on it and count it every day. Bah humbug."

FROM Daisy: "I'm just so glad that Donald got the boat so we and the boys could enjoy boating — together. And of course all of the girls, April, May, and June, love to be on the water too, especially when that is where the boys are. Oh poor Scrooge, boating is more fun then you could possibly imagine."

FROM Scrooge: "After seeing how much fun you all have on the water together, I regret that I didn't have that much fun when I was young. I've had a change of heart, and I'm giving each of you a Lifetime Academy Membership."

FROM Editor: "For those of you that have stayed with us this far, many thanks, and we hope that you found this little narrative informative. Your faithful support inspires us to keep working on this phenomenal website. We know that we have a lot more to do. Ultimately, we hope that we can help you enjoy the wonder filled world of boating as much as we do. We are all waiting to see what you have to say about this webpage article. Submit any comments via email To: Comments♣EverythingAboutBoats.org (Replace "♣" with "@"). Be sure to include this page's title in the subject line. Also, your corrections, updates, additions and suggestions are welcomed. Please submit them via email To: Editor♣EverythingAboutBoats.org (Replace "♣" with "@"). It has been truly amazing to see what we have been able to accomplished when we've worked together. Thanks to all those that have donated their valuable time and energy, and a special THANK YOU to all that have supported this cause with their membership donations."

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