Cylinder Head Gasket ..anyone experience with copper ?

[Tim Kay]

Wow, subscribing to this thread. Don't need it now but when I do this will be most valuable.

[Gord Zonailo]

Carlos,

After properly interpreting what you decribe (not what the machine shop said) I,m convinced that you had detonation which resulted in burning a piston and blowing the head gasket! Totally agree with Mike!

Gord

[Tom Turner]

If you do go to a copper gasket remember to lubricate each side of the gasket with a copper spray-a-gasket. It looks like a copper colored paint (Permatex makes one). Wait until it is tacky and then apply it to the engine. This is for both those requiring o-rings and those that don't. Torque the engine to spec or per your ARP bolt requirements. Run the engine aor drive for a short period so the engine is warm (up to running temps). Don't try to hammer the engine with high revs right off. Let it cool and re-torque the heads. If racing, you may want to re-torque after the first warm-up session (after it is cool). I've found this procedure to be time consuming (mostly the waiting to cool) but it has worked on my racing engines for years.

[Rick]

With Edelbrock aluminum heads (?) use a gasket with a preflattened Firing ring. Felpro 1011-2 is one, I'm sure there are others. Without the pre flattened ring the Aluminum head is brinelled around the combustion chamber and the stainless sealing ring will create an indention in the head surface. There are too many good high tech gaskets to require old school Copper.

[Cliff Beer]

Copper works great if you have perfectly flat surfaces, both block and head. In fact, it is far superior to paper or fiber or other types of gaskets provided the surfaces are flat. Other (non-copper) gaskets work better where the surfaces are not flat as they are typically more accommodating of the bowed surface.

If you have a flat surface you will not get a burn through with a copper gasket.

As usual, the story is a bit more complicated, and the the topic at hand needs to be considered in the broader environment.

[(C)arlos]

Hmmm I only used pumped gas with 100 Octane, so very hard to believe....

As said I am not sure, the pistons look from the top quite ok. bit on the rich side but that was ok....

My fear is, I will never find it out what went wrong....However, I have a spare 289, 302 and 351 sitting there, so if I go with the 289 or 302 I can reuse heads oilpan and so on, so not to bad......Whatever is going to happen over the next weeks, I am really looking forward to put this all together and run my 8stack EFI on top of it :-)

So now back to the garage the GTD build is waiting....And next week I am taking after four years of restoration my Cobra to inspection, summer is not waiting .....

Many thx for all the ideas, tips and hints. Personally I find this a very very useful and educational thread.....

Cheers
(C)arlos

Originally Posted by GordsFord

Carlos,

After properly interpreting what you decribe (not what the machine shop said) I,m convinced that you had detonation which resulted in burning a piston and blowing the head gasket! Totally agree with Mike!

Gord