Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications 3.0L Duratec Head gasket questions.

It appears that the head gasket for the 3L block (I'm using the 04 Escape block with 3L PnP heads) blocks off four potential coolant passage areas per side. The passages in question are one each on the intake side and flywheel side on cylinder 3 and one each on the exhaust side and accessory side of cylinder 1. This is mirrored on #6 and #4 on the right hand side.

Is there any reason for this? Not that I'm eager to out-engineer a degreed Ford engineer and go wantonly punching holes in a head gasket, but ideas would be appreciated as to why this is so.

So far I've picked the brains of todras and Buckshot, but both of them don't have answers either.

Ideas?? Well, they did extensive testing and they may have determined that plugging those holes keeps the rate of coolant flow in the head at the right amount to keep heat in the right range for both cold starts and for hot days.
I'd say leave them alone as the cylinders are all wet cylinders and you are not blocking any completely off from coolant, just limiting the overall flow rate.

It could also be causing the coolant to spend a little more time in contact with the cylinder sleeves so that it will pick up more heat/volume of coolant and increase cooling efficiency.

There is a lot of work and testing that go into the arrangement and size of those holes. It all has to do with regulating flow through areas of the head and block. You don't want to open up holes in one area with the goal of increased flow because you might cause hot spots in an unforseen area due to decreased flow.