Re: Gaskets, custom made

[Rob Windt]

A quick note on head gaskets - when riding and servicing 50's motor bikes in a previous life we made our own head gaskets from copper sheet, they were re-usable many times if annealed between use - just heat them to cherry red with a torch and let them cool naturally

[Henry W]

Hi Rob Windt,

Welcome aboard!!! Glad to have you here.

Thanks for posting how you made copper gaskets. I think there are others that would like to learn how to make gaskets out of copper. I think it would be great to move this to the General Discussion section in the forum. We are trying to make the Parts Source section a place to list parts so others have a simplified way to search for parts.

I like your wood gassifier truck. That is sure a slick setup!!  We have wood gassifier topics in the methane, producer gas, propane etc section and I know there are others that would like to see and hear about this. Here is the link: http://www.microcogen.info/index.php?board=24.0
Please feel free to introduce your self there. I think you will find it a great place to meet other members that are in wood gassification and would love to learn about your wood gassifier truck. Looking at your pictures and reading a bit about your setup I see you spent lots of time and hard work on this project and I feel you would be an insperation others.

Henry

[SteveU.]

Hi Rob Windt
Welcome aboard.

Regards
S.U.

[Tom Reed]

Copper gaskets are great. I made a set of header gaskets for my IH 345, the ones that came with the headers kept burning out. The sheet copper was made by taking a piece of 3/4" soft type L copper tube from the hardware store and slitting it up the side and flattening it out.  You can get almost a 2.5" wide sheet this way.

[rl71459]

Welcome Mr Windt. I see you have an excellent first name!

Sincerely
Rob L

[Tom Reed]

Perhaps the manifold is warped? IRRC things did get hot. If so the right way to fix it is to have it surfaced.

[flywheel]

If I remember correctly on the twins the manifolds should be attached and tightened somewhat before tightening up the head/cylinder bolts.  This will allow the head/cylinders to move slightly and allow correct allignment of the manifolds.

If the cyl/head bolts are tightened first this may cause the manifolds to not line up correctly and they will crack if tightened. 
                        flywheel

[Tom Reed]

Oh so you really do have a tube type header. Why not just make a slice most of the way through the errant tube, near the flange, tighten into place and weld up the gap?

[vdubnut62]

I'm afraid that anything soft enough to flex that amount would blow out under pressure. (exhaust pulses)
Stick a used braided stainless flex section in there off a junk Toyota front wheel drive or something?
Ron

[rl71459]

Jens

I know this might sound stupid at first, but here goes. If you could fashion a Tube & Collector type arrangement (Think of Hi Perf Headers) a couple of options are possible. With the seperate tubes it is possible that there may be enough flex in the Tubes to allow for this mispositioning. Or if you made one
of the tubes a slip fit the sliding joint could be used as a point of adjustment.

The reason this came to mind was we used to use racing headers that were tuneable... they had a slip on collector which allowed you to effect you power curve via collector changes (Different Dia's & Lengths) as well as tube extensions. another benefit of this configuration is it installed much easier!

Rob

[bschwartz]

Re: the half gasket.  Can you use copper and gently sand it thinner on one side like a wedge to fit your gap?

[Crofter]

I have made some crude emergency exhaust gaskets from a few layers of metal screen saturated with muffler sealer. Also have used glass fiber cloth instead of window screen (the nylon stuff is useless) The muffler cement is available at all auto parts stores.  I think a bit of eyeball work with an angle grinder on the flanges of the header might be in order ( or a judicious swat with a hammer if it is not cast).

[Tom Reed]

While the grinder method may work, the surface of the flange under the bolt heads will be sloped. With expansion and contraction the bolts may loosen or break.

[Crofter]

While the grinder method may work, the surface of the flange under the bolt heads will be sloped. With expansion and contraction the bolts may loosen or break.

I dont follow. Are the flanges on the heads exhaust ports  cocked off? I was assuming it was the fabricated manifold that was not true.

[Tom Reed]

If I understand correctly, and I may not, Jens is planning to make a wedge shaped gasket or grind the flange to wedge shape so it mates with the head. Yes the manifold is not true, so after grinding the flange the the surface under the bolt heads will be sloped, unless the top of the flange is ground to the same angle.