Head Gasket Failure

[Jesda]

Had it happen to me once on another car, so I'm curious, what causes head gasket failure and how do you prevent it? Or is it just a natural thing that occurs with age?

-Jesda

[Q45tech]

Head gaskets fail from poor design of gasket, failure to utilize the most expensive possible materials in water passages, and overheating of engine resulting in differential expansion between the block and the heads. Also, Extreme pressures beyond the design limits like supercharging and tweeking the boost up or failed BOV are the failure modes.

Aluminum is more sensitive to overheats because the alloy changes strength at low temperatures [450F]......Mixed engines are the worst as the different expansion rates of iron and aluminum.