Lister CD 8HP named Ray

Just anneal it and reuse, Cobba.

Soft copper washers seal much better than one that is untreated. Here is a simple method for annealing a head gasket: Just put the copper gasket or washer on an electric or gas stove burner, turn it up to high, and when the gasket turns red, turn the burner off and have a cup of coffee.

This is easier. The main point is dull red then quench according to my 1930's engineering manual and this bloke,


This is a very good explanation.
mellowpine.com/blog/copper-annealing/#:~...rkpiece%20in%20water .


And just make a new one



Just had to keep going on this bloke. Nothing to do with gaskets but what a great engineer

The catch with diesel gaskets is they are two thin sheets of copper with asbestos mat in between..........if the mat is cracked or bits missing,the gasket will leak,no matter what................Ive also seen a great many of the cut solid copper gaskets fail on diesel engines .....if the diesel has liners that are above the block surface ,and the liner flange is the seal area,then solid copper wont work...........generally they will leak coolant,or if tightened down enough to thin the copper ,the liner flanges may crack from excessive force .

I n eed to look closer but this head gasket is copper top n bottom but unknown in the middle, asbestos or what? Can that still be annealed?

Cobba,

We're all old so don't worry too much about the asbestos as by the time it gets us we'll all be dead of some other ailment.

The asbestos mat is soft and flexible when the gasket is new.....heat and oil turns it hard and brittle..........Im not worried about the fibre ,as its a solid sheet...............if I was worried ,I be worried about shovelfulls of asbestos out of twin plate Spicer clutches ,and working where brake linings were ground to size in the open.

Thro the Head Gasket in a bath of water overnight
the asbestos will absorb the water and gro a bit over night

( if only life was so easy ....LOL)

cya

I can remember My Grandfather Painting Head gaskets with Old Fashioned Silverfrost whenever he reused one..

Can remember doing that time and time again. Never had a failure, even on grey Holden engines running 10 to 1 compression ratio. Not being picky but it’s “Silvafros”,

Im not really that concerned about the filling of the sandwich I have handled worse case scenarios before. I heard about the soaking overnight earlier today and I cannot see any issues doing that either. Good old Silver frost, I too had done that many years ago but it had to be the one that had aluminium powder in it to fill the gaps and that is why they made this copper gasket spray stuff from Permatex, I think and it is sticky and works.