who has experience with copper head gaskets, good, bad, opinions please....

[JayC]

A lot of gaskets might do weird things depending on whats going on under the o-ring. You could do a stock gaskets. I dont know about Cometics. My one experience with them has been poor so they were never high up on my list.

 

[Mike E]

If your against the copper gaskets and want to use something else, the wire has to come out. You can pull the stainless wire out and replace it with the same size copper wire (usually ~.041"). Lightly hammer the copper wire into the groove run a file over it to flatten it out. Then you can run a cometic or other steel shim gasket.

 

[TurboBob]

An old duttweiler trick was to use a wire in the deck and FelPro 1026 gaskets. I ran an engine like that for a couple years (was not a radical build though). I had no issues at all with it.

Bob

 

[we4Mateo]

An old duttweiler trick was to use a wire in the deck and FelPro 1026 gaskets. I ran an engine like that for a couple years (was not a radical build though). I had no issues at all with it.

Bob

Interesting. I'm not opposed to wire but I still want a stock style gasket.

 

[threerail]

mike..., that sounds like a good idea really, but it seems like it would possibly scratch up the deck surface around the cylinders.....decks have a nice smooth finish, looks like 90 RA to me, give or take 10. if you know a way to cut them post it up please, i like the idea of running copper, just concerned about water leaks mainly, they are the absolute best for sealing high cylinder psi, thats been proven, i have heard mostly good things about cometics, and not many leaking issues overall, thanks

bob....good to hear from you, been a while brother...wondering if you remember if Kenny D used stainless or copper rings with the 1026 gaskets, seems like copper ring would work better against the stainless fire ring of the gasket than stainless maybe...?? if you remember let me know, thanks, rob

 

[TurboBob]

the wire was stainless, the Felpro 1026 gasket has a flat copper fire ring, inside of the stainless jacket.

http://www.turbobuicks.com/resources/HeadGaskets/Display_HeadGaskets.asp.html

Bob

 

[Spooling]

Retorque several times before you put the rockers or headers on.

----------------
Using the stacked GM Headgaskets (P/N # 25524599) w/ that GE Sauce - final Torque Value = 75 ft-lbs or 85 ft-lbs?

Many Thanks !!!

 

[threerail]

talked to SCE about their copper titan gaskets designed for use with a stainless wire, they have bonded elastomeric rings around the water and oil passages, to help insure sealing, can also use copper coat on them at install to help sealing also, they seem to have a nice design here. im leaning in this direction for my project so far, has anybody tried these?
i have a high end race engine builder here that has used SCE coppers on supercharged and turbo motors for years and likes them alot, he builds alot of engines that make enormous power and copper is required to keep them together at extreme cylinder psi.
SCE also has copper shim race gaskets you can use silicone around passages, or hylomar or copper coat.. they recommend KW copper coat for all their gaskets for performance use, their tech info area on their website was full of good info on copper gasket tech...learned something there, so if anyone wants some good reading check it out..

appreciate all the replies here so keep em coming, its great to have a forum like this, so much can be learned....

 

[jasjamz]

I used them back in 2006. No problems. But I wasn't going to stop there. I tried other gaskets and never got back around to them.

 

[Spooling]

I cranked them to 75 ft-lbs and that's where thay will stay !!!