FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

Found a Copper Head gasket floating round in the shed this week doing a tidy up, are these things any good? are they better than original ones? are they common?  are there different types? are they worth anything?, I THINK it suits a grey motor but I am not sure.
Matt

is it a copper head gasket or is it like a gasket material with copper faces,
if its solid copper it is worthwile to use if you have very high compression or high boost from a turbo or supercharger, its harder to blow out a copper headgasket but they are more likely to have a bad seal when you fit it if its not spot on, a advantage is you can just clean it up, aneal it and put it back on.
 if you fit the solid copper type you should use a sealer like threebond white, o rings are also recomended, they are best fitted into the top of the block but if you dont want to pull the motor out you can get the head done instead.
 a new australian gasket needs to be annealed, this softens the material and is done by heating it till it gets a faint red glow.
 a new copper gasket is usually between $150 and $250 new, the type that have a thin layer of copper on each side of gasket material are just pretty standard old type of head gasket, i dont know how they compare to a modern headgasket like a monotorque, ezyfit etc.

Thanks FCCOOL for the wealth of information!