I also have had poor exprerience with copper head gaskets. Personally, I
believe that this is another example of nostalgia clouding reality. Years
ago copper head gaskets were probably the best available gaskets but
composite gaskets today are very good.
One advantage of a copper gasket is that it can be reused if you aneal it.
this can be done in an oven. Maybe this is why some racers stuck with
copper gaskets longer than they should have, I don't know. I do know that
the copper gasket on my BSA was worse than useless and that I would never
use another one unless no other type of gasket was available.
As far as where your section of gasket went to, I would suspect that is was
burned away by the hot combustion gasses leaking between your cylinders and
that the molecular constituents found their way into our atmosphere by way
of the tailpipe. I also would not be surprised if a small depression has
been burned into the head and the top of the block by these same hot
gasses. Worth a look.
I do not use any gasket dressing when installing composite cylinder head
gaskets. Most modern gaskets come with some special sauce already applied.
I tried all sorts of dressings on the copper gasket and nothing seemed to
help.
Regards,
Bill Eastman
61 MGA
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