thanks for the pictures of the head and gaskets but to confirm is the picture of the head defo series 2 as it has less cooling holes in it than the 4 heads i have here so I've assumed the series 2 head has more cooling holes than early head? and also the gaskets that came of mine are the same as the ones out of the packets on the pictures with more holes so are these gaskets series one or two just so i can order the correct ones.
thanks again for all your help

excellent thanks for clearing that up  so does it matter when fitting these to an injection engine i don't think it does as both head types seem to have them from what i can see only reason i ask this is one of the replacements head i am going to use seems to have these holes blocked of with a hard substance which can be cleared if required.

Keri, the holes to the exhaust ports are for the series one emissions system
They trick the engine into adding fresh air to the exhaust gases, it reduces
the emission readings and. Causes the pop pop on over run.

Two types of gaskets.
The picture of the head is S2.

It is better to make your own gasket for the intake manifold than to use a kit.

> " hole   drilled into each exhaust port which then goes into the crankcase "
That  doesn't seem right to me and I've never seen it! It wouldn't vent crankcase gases but would pressurise the crankase with exhaust gasses. Crankcase venting is done via the pipe on the oil filler which vents gasses back into the plenum chamber.

There’s a slight difference in the holes for the cooling ducts between early and late head gaskets. A Lancia engineering change notice states that early gaskets can be used with the later heads if an extra hole is drilled in the gasket. So if using a later gasket with an early head, the extra gasket cooling hole shouldn’t make a difference. So our advice is that if in doubt, use the later gaskets. Small changes to the Gamma engine were applied often and not all changes were at the introduction of fuel injection, normally referred to as S2 although strictly speaking there was never officially a series 1 and series 2 Gamma. What we normally refer to as series 2 was simply a facelift and the introduction of fuel injection for some markets. My file of Lancia Gamma “Engineering change notes” is a full A4 folder bulging at the seams! But as you are sure you have S1 heads then you might as well use the early gaskets. The full gasket set comes complete with manifold gaskets but they are the thin ones and not the thick spacer gaskets. The engine in my car is the opposite of what you will have. My car is a "series 2" coupe with fuel injection but I have series 2 heads (I think!) with series 1 bottom end. I have replaced gaskets with early ones, on which I drilled the extra hole, and with the later ones and they worked fine. I have also had the inlet manifold fitted with the thick spacer gaskets and the thinner paper gaskets and both worked equally well. The thick spacer gaskets can be reused.

what are the difference between head gaskets for early or late engines? also i noticed on one   head there is a hole   drilled into each exhaust port which then goes into the crankcase what is this for as on the other head it appears to be blocked off by hard crud of some sort but you can just see a tiny hole so could be drilled ok i assume these take crankcase gases out of exhaust in the flow?

Hi Theo thanks for the link i was going to order the head gaskets from the consortium today using the new e mail address but noticed they stated that they stock head gaskets for early and late engines so what are the differences as i now have a late series2 block with early series 1 heads which head gaskets do i order also do you know if they stock the intake manifold to head spacer gaskets.
thanks
Keri

For torque settings look at http://www.lanciagammaconsortium.info/htmlfr/gamma006.htm

The Consortium can provide all gaskets. Engine gasket set comes without the head gaskets which are sold separately.