Im going to be putting an old set of edelbrock heads on my flat motor. my question is what material head gasket should i go with copper or cosmetic? Any ideas and pros and cons would be great
I personally have had the best luck with the Fel-Pro brand headgaskets, with both stock cast heads, and the Edelbrock Aluminum heads. I tried the more expensive Copper gaskets, and could never get them to quit seeping coolant arount the edges. I even tried some of that aluminum Eastwood paint on them to get them to seal. No luck. The Fel-pro ones are the best in my opinion. I have had them burn out a few times, but I think thats to be expected if you drive em!
X2 on the Fel Pro gaskets. Good quality. Use a spray sealer on the gaskets. You may see some coolant seepage until you run the engine in, but it seals up . Flatman
Go Fel-Pro on most everything, on the strokers, do the copper. Before you ****on the motor up with the heads....make sure all your steam holes and coolant holes are fully opened up and not trying to plug on you. Also....pay attention to the gaskets....on some they'll shroud the coolant flow and restrict coolant....making the motor run slightly warmer than normal. Usually it doesn't hut to open the block openings up to the gasket uponings at achieve better flo.....gotta be careful.....don't let the grinder slip and go down acreoss the sealing surface or down into the bore.............
Felpro are pretty good. Shouldnt blow if all surfaces are machined flat and heads are ok as far as corrosion goes. Just keep em tight , they need touqueing down again at least 4 times , thats a big surface you are trying to keep flat. You can always spray the surface with copper gasket spray, but when you come to get the heads off the old gasket wont be as keen to let go. Just run antifreeze in the system if you are running copper gaskets , it seems to stop the reaction between copper and alloy. The old composition gaskets are fine in a std, motor, just make sure they are good ones as there are a few floating around that dont have the steel flange around the combustion chamber crimped over far enough evenly, that'll make em blow for sure.
I use copper gaskets from H&H flatheads and i have never had a problem.I never had coolant leaks and the heads sealed perfectly.Just my experience,but the copper ones are expensive.
I can usually get about 3 solid years out of a set of head gaskets, the Fel-Pro ones, before they burn through the thin part between cylinders. This set has been on for going on 4 years now. Like someone else said keep em torqued! I swapped to a set of Chromed, milled Ford heads though. I warped the Alum. ones.... Long story....
Fel-Pro for sure. Coat them in Copper-A-Gasket and coat the bolts with aviation sealant/ anti-size before installing them. Also, always use new head bolts as the old ones have a tendency to get stretched. Lastly, look up the oder in which the bolts should be tightened. It's in almost all flathead rebuild books and is very specific, but works well.
Best Gasket are their own company and their Graph-***e head gaskets are very, very good. Highly recommended for a composite head gasket. I don't fool with Copper gaskets normally. If you've got an early engine (59A style), go to NAPA and get their Victor headgaskets (I think the number is 1026K) - you'll have to order them as most stores don't stock them. They're actually made by Fel-Pro and are the blue, teflon-coated gaskets which seem to be hard to get from Fel-Pro directly. I've had very good luck with these -minimal retorque, no seepage, long life, etc.
Bump. I have my iron heads off, surfaces clean and about to install Edlebrocks. I have some nos McCord gaskets, thin steel sheet with thick fiber in the middle, they are almost .100" thick. Hope those will work OK. I was planning to spray with Copper Coat but I do want to be able to get the heads off later. What about silicone seal or Right Stuff?
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