Hitchcocks Forum

Hi all, quick question when reassembling the heads using the copper head gaskets on a 1960 super meteor is it best to use a smear of gasket sealant on the copper surfaces or to assemble dry. i have assembled them with a smear of sealant and after 300miles the heads started to blowby they were torqued to 20ft/lbs. i re-torqued them to 25ft/lbs but they started to blow again after 100miles. i am torquing them down and then running the engine till hot and then re-torquing them as per the manual but this problem persists. any comments will be greatly appreciated. thanks ed

Solid copper or composite? New? Annealed before use?
REgards, Mark

Hi Barnes,
If the heads are blowing on the inside edges, where they face each other, they may have warped very slightly. If so, it's not the end of the world, I had this happen and lapped the head faces flat again by placing medium / fine emery on a known flat surface, soaking it in WD40 and carefully rotating the head faces back and forth on this surface. If warped, the fault will show up almost straight away when doing this and it probably won't take long to do each head. The ones I did were only warped by about 4 thou according to a straight edge I laid from bolt hole to bolt hole and slipped a feeler guage underneath, but that was enough to blow the gaskets. You will probably see blackened areas of the copper gaskets if you lift the heads, this will back up any suspicions of warping. Regards, Paul.

hi paul, many thanks for that, i shall remove the heads and gently lap them using the method you suggest. i did use hitchcocks composite gaskets first time round but these blew to smitherines very quickly. hence the new copper gaskets. when reassembling do i assemble them dry or with a smear of gasket compound? many thanks
ed

Hi Barnes,
I always anneal even new copper head gaskets - on a cooker ring will do, till turning red then drop into cold water to quench, they will then be more pliable. A smear of gasket compound on both sides will help prevent oil leaks but will not help compression sealing - that is down to having good, even surfaces coming together. Regards, Paul.

Thats greaf advice thanks paul. Can i anneal my copper gaskets that i have already used and re-use them? Or do i need to buy new ones. Many thanks ed

Hi Ed, you can reuse copper head gaskets as long as they are undamaged and reannealed before reusing. Regards, Paul.

Back in the day I used to race Ducati singles which by design did not have a head gasket. A smear of red hermetite was quite adequate to seal up compression, even running at a relatively high 11:1 ratio, and any oil leaks. It certainly won't do any harm to use it on your meteor after you've checked and fixed any distortion.