This is what I tell people about copper headgaskets..----just about every
day..
Copper gaskets are not the miracle cure for engines that have had "blown
hg's" previously. Copper -even when annealed dead soft is pretty much
non-forgiving.
That being said...
1) The deck and head need to be flat and true for a 6 cyl motor no greater
than .004" legnth and no greater than .002'' side to side.
2) surface finnish about 70 microinches or better (glass is about a 10).
3) Gasket sealants are important in this application but pay attention...
clean off any oily residue on the gasket prior to application of sealant.
Allow ample time to set prior to torquing down the head. I rec. applying
the sealant to the gasket and waiting a few hours, laying down the head then
torquing the following morning if able. Torquing too soon will premautrely
squish the sealant and perhaps not make that important seal.
4) Don't torque greater than the fasteners specs... In my opinion, there is
a point reached where the head is not so much pulled down as the block is
lifted up. This will distort the fastener holes and lift up on the edges of
the holes -potentially, dimpling up on the gasket and creating a high spot.
One solution is to chamfer the blocks fastener holes after it comes back
from being milled. Also, overtorquing could and has been shown to loose
horsepower (distortion of the top of the cylinders). New aftermarket
fasteners are fabulous but, maybe stronger than the block was engineered
for?
5) If using a steel "O" ring around the cylinder annealing the gasket dead
soft is needed and the height of the wire above the deck ought not to be
greater than 10% or so of the the gaskets thickness unless a receiver groove
is machined in the head.
6) People swear by many sealants... Pliobond, gascachinch, yammabond,
aviation gasket sealant, silicone ... ..what ever works for you.
7) Though somewhat unapealing to some a block/coolant sealant is sometimes
useful.
8) Some motors seal some don't.
New items on the "brain" bench.
1)Teflon, or high temp vinyl coating of copper. I tested this and it
has promise.
2) Very thin .003" S.S. masks of gasket to be applied on top of main
gasket to increase the point surface pressure. This is not tested yet.
I make gasket for all sorts of applications...Lately, lots of midwest
tractor and truck pulling with JD6030, I.H., Allis Chalmers, Farmall, Ford
7.3 diesels these people are successful with even with turbo boost of
100psi!! Lots of imense combustion pressure. Very solid blocks and big
fasteners to hold these things together. Even though the TR heritage is
similar it is not in this league.
M. Dunst
Gasket Works USA, LLC
626.358.1616 voice (GMT - 8)
626.357.9490 fax
www.headgasket.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charly Mitchel" <charly@mitchelplumbing.com>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 6:39 PM
Subject: Copper gaskets
> Hey all, I have a professional question to ask and maybe it'll be of some
help
> to others than myself. I think I've discovered a cause of my TR6 running
hot.
> It seems to be a leak between the #6 cylinder and the water jacket at the
head
> gasket. I say this because I can seen the gasket is darker in that area.
Now
> the question, I have a copper head gasket and have been told many ways to
make
> it seal, but I want to get the opinion of the people who make and install
> these gaskets. It is a very good quality gasket made by Gasket Works and
I
> don't see any other damage to it. Before assembling the motor, I had the
> block decked .020" and the head was check for trueness. I'm pretty sure
those
> 2 items are flat. I really would like to use the copper gasket if
possible
> but could go to a composition gasket if the reasons are there. What do
you
> all think?
> Charly Mitchel
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