Opinions On Head Gaskets

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RustyRatRod

RustyRatRod

I was born on a Monday. Not last Monday.
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What do yall think about these? Dead soft copper, .020 compressed thickness. I know technically they are gasket spacers and it says to use with head gaskets.....but even doing so you still have one side of the spacer doing the sealing. Is there any reason I could not use these on my low compression 400?

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/fel-8519sp
 
RRR,

heat and cold, heat and cold. Would those cycles loosen up / leak over time? Copper is used on 2 cycle heads all the time but air cooled.
I’m looking for thin head gaskets for 318 I’m building. All .038” or more. Just my thoughts.
 
The 5 star review user had commented about using Hylomar against the block side of the shim. There's a trick Tom Nelson does to make his high boost turbo engines seal on the street with copper gaskets and steel wire O rings that involves a pair of heat guns and Permatex aviation gasket maker that would probably work with an iron to iron copper sandwich. But I'd play it safe with the steel shim and copper coat spray myself being that it's available.
 
I’ve used the Mopar Perf steel shim gasket for years .020 also !! I would spray paint them silver and put those dudes on ! Never a problem !! Especially on a low compression motor !!
 
Garrett Ellison said:
The 5 star review user had commented about using Hylomar against the block side of the shim. There's a trick Tom Nelson does to make his high boost turbo engines seal on the street with copper gaskets and steel wire O rings that involves a pair of heat guns and Permatex aviation gasket maker that would probably work with an iron to iron copper sandwich. But I'd play it safe with the steel shim and copper coat spray myself being that it's available.
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Point to me a .020 steel shim head gasket for a big block mopar, oh great one. One that's in stock and won't bankrupt me.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Just curious....what's your reasoning?
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Had a friend buy a set and install them on his 440. He thought they were racy and they would make more power. It was leaking water internally withing an hour or less.
 
Syleng1 said:
RRR,

heat and cold, heat and cold. Would those cycles loosen up / leak over time? Copper is used on 2 cycle heads all the time but air cooled.
I’m looking for thin head gaskets for 318 I’m building. All .038” or more. Just my thoughts.
Click to expand...

@Syleng1
Here are your thin 318 head gaskets.
.028 ths. compressed thickness.
Mr Gasket 1121G

Screenshot_20200807-193350_Chrome.jpg
 
toolmanmike said:
Had a friend buy a set and install them on his 440. He thought they were racy and they would make more power. It was leaking water internally withing an hour or less.
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Well.....the power part I know is splittin hairs. Even puttin this together with just copper coat and NO gasket would still be under 8:1 I believe. LOL Even still, I want a .020 gasket if I can find one. I have the Mr Gasket ones on order.....but who knows when or if they'll come in.

What I don't get is, there are dead soft copper head gaskets that are thicker that people use. What's the difference other than thickness? I've seen people use them without o-rings too. I'm not arguing.....I'm probably not going to use them.....just doesn't feel right.......I;m just kinda thinkin out loud.
 
RustyRatRod said:
Out of stock.
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Every time I used the steel shim gasket I had the same thing !! Every horror story in the book came out from everyone that knew I was using steel shim head gaskets ! Never not once had an issue!! I also didnt have resurfaced heads or a decked block !! OMG people thought I was insane !! All I know is my race car was at the track every weekend !! Some of theirs were not !! You need to use them ! Get all the compression you can !
 
Rmoore said:
Every time I used the steel shim gasket I had the same thing !! Every horror story in the book came out from everyone that knew I was using steel shim head gaskets ! Never not once had an issue!! I also didnt have resurfaced heads or a decked block !! OMG people thought I was insane !! All I know is my race car was at the track every weekend !! Some of theirs were not !! You need to use them ! Get all the compression you can !
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I plan to. The FelPro copper gaskets I linked to in the first post are "spacer" gaskets. They are meant to be used with head gaskets, but one side has to seal all by itself.....so why can't both? I just don't understand the reason.
 
fishmens67 said:
Rob, just use a .020 steel gasket. done !

Not to take a sale from you. lol
Summit has the .018 steel for a bank breaking 25 bucks. lol
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No they don't. If they did, they would be here and assembled in my engine.
 
RustyRatRod said:
No they don't. If they did, they would be here and assembled in my engine.
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Sorry about that. I added them to my cart and ship date is stated is 8/17/20. oh well Max has 6 in his picture. lol
 
RustyRatRod said:
No biggie. I hope you get them.
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Not for me. I was trying to help. :thumbsup:
I'm really looking forward to the results of the budget 400 build, brings back alot of memories for me. Most builds turned out pretty good.
 
RustyRatRod said:
I plan to. The FelPro copper gaskets I linked to in the first post are "spacer" gaskets. They are meant to be used with head gaskets, but one side has to seal all by itself.....so why can't both? I just don't understand the reason.
Click to expand...

Here is one thing in your favor RRR. Small blocks have 10 head bolts, big blocks have 15, so way better uniform tightening pressure on the big blocks with the extra bolts.

There is a post on here one guy asking what type of head gaskets to use with his 383 and a blower. They are talking about the extra bolts on the big blocks to hold the added pressures of the blower.
 
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