How to choose a gasket material

[lhanscom]

I'm going to be replacing my headgasket, and base gasket this winter, so I need to choose a material, and I'm not sure how. At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to o-ring my block yet, if I do I know I need a copper gasket, but if I don't then what? Do you need to have o-rings to use copper? Do the graphite ones seal up well (This is on a 1229cc 10.5 to 1 compression engine running nitrous). I blew out a graphite one earlier this year when I hit the nitrous button, and I would rather not repeat that. The steel one I currently have has been seeping oil a bit, but I plan on making this a dry block, so I'm not sure if the steel is fine for the cylender pressure or not. The base gasket I currently have is copper, and it seems to be doing its job just fine, so I guess copper is the way to go on that, but I would love to have your opinions.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

The base gasket I currently have is copper, and it seems to be doing its job just fine,

No opinion on the head gasket (actually, I think they should be dry, with viton O-rings in grooves, but that's a different rant... ).

You want a metal base gasket, copper or not. Under high power loads (and your engine certainly qualifies there) the block and cases move relative to one another. This motion will ball up and destroy a fibre base gasket, but the metal gaskets will survive this. I would stick with the copper myself.

Mark

[Hap Call]

I'm running a graphite head gasket on a 1166cc motor with 10.25 ratio...never had a hint of leakage.


Hap

[SqDancerLynn1]

NOS is another can of worms, Would require copper head gasket & O ring block I have heard that you can machine the block & head to accept an O ring to cure the leaking problem with copper gasket

[SqDancerLynn1]

NOS is another can of worms, Would require copper head gasket & O ring block I have heard that you can machine the block & head to accept an O ring to cure the leaking problem with copper gasket