[Fot] Best head gasket revisited

[Mike Harmuth]

Cometic will do a custom gasket for a minimal one time charge. I've had a
Spitfire gasket made thick to make up for an over zealous block milling and
another one with a wider piston opening. Once they make the design changes,
they send you a PDF with the dimensions listed for your approval. When it's
OK, they assign a part number and CNC it out. Design turn around is about a
week and another week to make it. After the first one is made, just call up
and order replacements with your customer number, no extra charges.

mike h

On Sun, Oct 25, 2020 at 8:41 AM Jerry Van Vlack via Fot <fot at autox.team.net>
wrote:

> Joe, my experience is only with a hot street engine but worth expressing.
> 87mm pistons and liners, .090 milled from head and Kastner D cam.
> I ran a stock AE330 for almost 40 years with no issues then I did a valve
> job and hardened EX seats because of recession in #4 EX valve seat. The
> shop took another approx. .010 off the head (so now approx. .100 off the
> head) . I used the Cometic 91mm gasket and it burned through at #4 in 2
> years of street driving. Maybe 15,000 miles.
> The engine was tired by this time having been rebuilt in the 80’s. I
> rebuilt the engine and decided to use another AE330 with a new head at .070
> milled. That gasket leaked because of my dumb mistake not re-torqueing
> after a few heat cycles. Replaced with another AE330 and now have approx.
> 10,000 miles with no issues. I did re-torque a couple of times.
>
> Original AE330 copper gaskets are getting hard to find but occasionally
> show up on EBay, I just bought one. The “new” repro AE 330 copper gaskets
> are not the same especially in the valve pocket area, I’ve compared them.
>
> My point in al of this is take a look at how an original AE330 fits to
> your head and block and give it consideration, you might find it
> acceptable. Or continue to use the steel with thin copper wire that you’ve
> used. I am not a fan of the Cometic but admittedly mine was used on a
> street engine with no plans to change it every year. Tony’s experience is
> worthy of attention, he hammers that engine pretty hard.
>
> JVV
>
> *From:* Joe Boruch via Fot
> *Sent:* Saturday, October 24, 2020 9:25 PM
> *To:* FOT List
> *Subject:* [Fot] Best head gasket revisited
>
> I was not receiving list emails for a while, so I missed the conversation
> a few months ago.
>
> For those of you using the composite or even Cometic gaskets, have you
> done much relieving around the intake valves?  I have not found any such
> gasket that would not protrude out into the combustion chamber.  I even
> bought one from BPNW that was good for up to 92mm bore, but it still
> protruded.  I have been using steel shim head gaskets with copper wire
> o-rings in the fire rings, but would like a simpler set up.  I have held
> off on putting my TR3 engine back together for years (while playing with
> S2000s and Miatas) waiting for a better head gasket.  Joe B
>
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