stainless steel headgasket?

[Barry Donovan]

multi layer squishy this, composite polymer squahsy that.

what if I go for some 22 ga stainless 304 sheet for a headgasket?

between two aluminums...

possible?
18 head bolts for 1.8 liters, 2 cyls a bank.

[redneckjoe69]

i guess if you got a lot of time on your hands to make your own,........

i hear an ole' timer trick is to spray paint both sides with aluminum/silver paint. helps it seal or something?

copper might be easier to work with and seal better, but i'm not familiar with what your trying accomplish exactly.

[squirrel]

Steel gaskets work ok with iron heads, but they have a little bead rolled in them near every opening, and are coated with sealer when installed, and they like to be retorqued after a little while.

[anotheridiot]

a machinist I worked with always said if two surfaces are perfectly flat, you shouldnt even need a gasket. But then again, he thought he would get rid of all that play in bearings and built a motor that seized up. lol

Stainless though, I dont think so, copper works so well because it compresses, but you also need o rings to get a really good seal. If you try it, get something annealed, at least that way it will create some of its own shape when you torque it.

[tedly]

I know copper head gaskets and O-ringed head/block works, but they tend to leak. Also I have no idea what the galvanic reaction between aluminum and stainless is, but I'm getting a red light flashing in the recesses of my brain.

Are you planning on running that much boost or compression? Or just wanting to try a different approach?

[Beagle]

there's already steel and aluminum mixed in that engine... aluminum bolts aren't as good for torque capacity. Worst case scenario, put a zinc anode from an outboard motor on it. I'm pretty much echoing what has already been said, but...

Spray painting copper seal, copper colored paint, metallic paint like silver spray paint in a pinch all help it seal a little better, but water is gonna be your nemesis.

Sure, you can do it, but I can't think of a good reason to do this because modern composite gaskets seal great under most conditions. I've seen most of your posts and don't remember any head gasket sealing issues. Are you gonna put 50 pounds of boost on it? 22 gauge is .0299 so it's not like you're going to get a big compression boost out of it either.

That said, I'd consider copper before stainless and think about how absolutely smooth the mating surfaces have to be to seal correctly. It takes a smoother finish for a shim gasket than a composite to make a good seal.

[Barry Donovan]

I have got a great seal, never fails until subarus cams attempt to time in the stroke..


I am wondering what the plain jane gaskets were before the composite games.

I'd use copper at .030
o-ringed cylinder tops,
18 head bolts, 1/2 inch round and very hard (5 bucks a piece)...they were holding something together...
without the fancy chemistry.

old school something.
I'll do some hunting again for the custom coppers... lost the link. They simply use a headgasket that exists, outline.