Aluminium head gaskets

[Nick Lettington]

This begs a question...


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[Henry Harris]

Or 1mm solid copper from Aquaplane and Small Ford Spares.


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[Nick Lettington]

OK... so the question didn't ask itself. 

Given all of the issues with modern replacements for asbestos in the traditional Payen style head gaskets, and noting that some side valve engines had aluminium head gaskets by design, has anyone tried an aluminium head gasket in an Austin 7..? is there any reason why this wouldn't work? It strikes me that it wouldn't be too difficult to get such a thing cut out in this modern age, and I'd imagine it would be both simpler and less expensive that a copper one... (nice as that is though Henry!)


And as an extension to that, where my aluminium head has been damaged by a previous owner's attempts to skim it, would anyone care to postulate on whether an aluminium gasket/shim paired with some high temperature copper silicone gloop sealant (or some other clever adhesive) might be a sensible approach to attempt to render it useful once more?

[Parazine]

Melting point of Aluminium (pure) - 660 degrees C

Melting point of Copper (pure) - 1085 degrees C

[Nick Lettington]

I'm hoping the melting point of my aluminium head and pistons won't be reached!

[Nick Lettington]

If not for an Austin 7, does anyone have experience with solid aluminium head gaskets on other engines?

[graham]

I have a LOTUS Elite fitted with a Coventry Climax engine, which has an aluminium block and head, with steel cylinder liners. Going back many years I had to run on 5 Star petrol as the engine had quite a high compression ratio. 5 star fuel became difficult to get and in order to reduce the CR and run on 4 star, I made a 0.040" thick aluminium head gasket. The standard gaskets were thin steel and thicker ones were not available at the time. I cannot remember what grade of aluminium I used but I doubt it was anything special. I had no trouble with the home made gasket over many thousands of miles. I would not hesitate to use aluminium again but thicker composite gaskets of various thicknesses are now readily available and I am getting lazy!
I also remember a garden rotovator in the family in the 1960's which had a JAP side valve engine. This had a single steel cylinder with an aluminium head and gasket.

[Nick Lettington]

Thanks Graham, that's very helpful. I have had a few issues with the modern gaskets, solved now the need to retighten ad nausea is well known, but having seen these ally ones advertised for Ford side valves, wondered if they would be worth investigating.

[Peter Sweeney]

The 2CV has cast iron cylinders and aluminium heads. There is no head gasket. 8,5 or 9 to 1 compression. later cars not built in France sometimes blew this joint, but only because the heads were not torqued down properly. Pete

[Ian Williams]

I don't have experience with Aluminium head gaskets on an A7 engine but I have played with Solid copper ones. I found it very difficult to obtain a fully water tight seal and did not pursue the route for long, retightening the modern composites seems the best route at present. I did have an engine pass through my hands fitted with heavily skimmed aluminium head where a previous owner had attempted to restore the CR with a thick Aluminium gasket. From the carbon build up in the combustion chambers engine had obviously been running in this condition and I could not see obvious signs of bad water seepage. The owner did not want to reuse the head and gasket so I have no idea how successfully it ran in that condition.