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copper head gaskets?

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davelgee

davelgee

Senior Member
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I thought I would ask this here as it is not all that car specific. Does anyone have experience with copper O ringed Head gaskets (s/steel Al. or copper O rings)? I am thinking of making one for an old Alfa engine that I am going to rebuild and would be curious to see if any here are familiar with these.
One of the reasons that I have decided to look into this route is the head has some damage from a blown gasket let go a bit too long and will need some serious milling (.03 to .05" as a guess). The 'deck' seems to be OK.

TIA
Dave G.
 
O-rings for the oil galley pins?!?! Not too sure copper or any metal other than lead would substitute for those... and that not well. The only "deck" on an Alfa is the outer block edge. If you're referring to the area where the cylinder liner interface seals to the head with the gasket, I'd suggest having a ~~GOOD~~ machine shop clean/fill the irregularities and shave the patch to be even with the rest of the head.
 
Nope, not what I mean, the O rings I am talking about go between the head and the liners. I will use square section Vitron for the galley seals as well as some (big) split pins to put em in place.
What I have in mind is putting a very small groove in the head and liner to accept the ring, I am thinking a low 300 series SS like 304 so far (but am open about it) as it is soft and transfers heat better than most SS alloys. The copper gasket I make will be a close fit to these components when they are torqued. Alternatively, a composit of very thin SS that presses into the copper and surrounds the combustion area and coolant passages to stave off heat and electrolytic problems might be good. I would like to make the thing reusable if possible.
I am thinking .004" crush on the SS rings and something a little greater (.01") on the vitron galley seals.
All machining will be done on CNC equipment in one setting so I am not sure what the 'clean fill' means, I expect to get a <50 surface finish on all machined surfaces as that is what I usually shoot for.

Cheers!
Dave G.

P.S. I know how little 'deck' Alfas have, that is why the '' things are there!
 
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