I'm doing a head swap and I am looking at gaskets and I wanna know if I should get the "severe duty" head gasket. Is it worth the extra $? Will it give me better compression or something?

 

If memory serves me right, the fel-pro severe duty line of head gaskets are slightly thicker and have a considerably stronger "fire ring" to hold up to higher compression. However, more often than not, you have to make sure that you have a very flat block and head. The cheaper one is more forgiving on the deck surface. This is my experience with them on 2.3(lima) turbo fords.