Head gasket advise

[mobile_bob]

never had any issues with indian head gaskets, probably because i never ran one, or an indian engine, however
i have run the living crap out of my 195, tantamount to about 50hours on a dyno at 100 -125% or rated output

the chinese head gskts just would not hold up to the stresses imposed on them, one hour of max output = one failed gasket

contacted gaskets to go, and it took him a while but he found an alternative that not only exceeds my abuse but made one hard
run with the coolant probe measureing 260 degree's F!!

and the gasket lived to fight another day, actually it has been the last gasket i have had to replace.

some things the chinese do really well, head gskts and spark plugs are not two of them.

bob g

[mobile_bob]

i had issues with scanning my head gskt too, i finally just mailed him an original so he could match it up in person.

odd as it would seem, another associate of his noticed my gskt on his desk, and told him he thought he had a gskt on his wall
that would fit my engine,, turns out he was right and John sent me one,, i ended up getting several as the first one passed my
brutal dyno run that would kill an oem changfa gskt.

so now i have a stack of spares i might never use, however the price was right and i like having the insurance.

bob g

[Tom T]

Where can the sheet copper be bought to make gaskets out of I used to buy soft copper for gaskets but cant find it. Tom T

[Crofter]

Tom, maybe try roofing contractors that specialize in classic restorations. So expensive now that is almost a thing of the past. I think it is described in ounces per square ft or something weird like that rather than by sheet metal gauge or thou. thickness.

[flywheel]

Where can the sheet copper be bought to make gaskets out of I used to buy soft copper for gaskets but cant find it. Tom T

Just looked up sheet copper on ebay,  there are 1517 results.  Happy Hunting!
                                                                                                                             flywheel

[Lloyd]

How about this?
http://www.onlinemetals.com/merchant.cfm?id=93&step=2&top_cat=87

Or try Alaska Copper & Bronze in Seattle
http://www.alaskancopper.com/bb_bronze.php

Lloyd

[Tom Reed]

For smaller pieces of copper, I've split copper tube and flattened it. A 1" tube will give you a 3" wide strip.

[Crofter]

Most of that stuff on Ebay is either small pieces, pretty thin or wild price. I dont think a single thickness gasket without flexible filler will work with a projecting sleeve cylinder like on the listeroid.

[billswan]

A quick follow-up: I will be sending my old head gasket to Gaskets-to-go in the mail today. I expect it to take two weeks to get there, maybe another week or two to get fabricated and another two weeks for the order to come back to me. I ordered four gaskets, two to be installed during the summer maintenance and two spares just in case.

Did they mention a cost per gasket?

Billswan

[listeroil]

Jens

I have used a gaskets to go  8/1 head gasket and it worked very well no weeping anywhere. I used it on a genuine Lister with no liner protrusion with an indian head. The crank broke on that engine and Ive taken the head off and measured the head gasket thickness and its 1.45mm thick when compressed. Ive just measured an old used genuine copper composite gasket and its 1 mm thick when compressed.

The method I used to set the piston to head clearance on the next engine I built  was to bolt down the cylinder with spacers (3/4 drive sockets) and place a straight edge across the top of the block and measure the gap underneath the straight edge with a set of feeler gauges.  Piston to head clearence on a 8/1 engine is 1.9mm to 2.03mm. So a gap of 0.45mm to 0.58mm would be required.  I fitted excess base gaskets of a known thickness and just lifted the cylinder and removed the right amount to get the bump cleatrance correct.

Mick

[Tom Reed]

That extra thickness could be a problem if the cylinder is already on the deck.

[Crofter]

Piston to valve clearance is one part of the equation and compression ratio the other. More than recommended is not a problem for the valves (less certainly could be) Reducing the chamber on the nose of the compression plug or shaving the head could get the compression back if you were stuck.

[mbryner]

You already have gaskets coming, but there was some discussion about using sheet copper.   Did you look at HVAC contractors?   My wife got 4 sheets of copper about 14" x 14" for an art project from the guys who installed the backup furnace in our new house.   That much cost about $90 w/ some cutting.    She said they sold it by the gram, but she doesn't remember the $/gram.   Just for future reference.

[billswan]

The four gaskets I ordered will come with 1.5 mm gasket stock. They should be here within 2 weeks or so although I will not be installing the first two until summer.

Jens

Please post a pix or 2 and give us a personal critique of the gasket. I might order a couple now that they have a way of making the right gasket for a 10/1..................

Crossing my fingers hoping for a report of a successful perfect copy in modern gasket technology........

Billswan

[playdiesel]

I guess I have posted this before but you guys have no worries with GTG. Service, workmanship and materials are all first rate. John's parts will fit and fuction correctly, that you can depend on.