Copper asbestos head gasket

[Tommy-T]

I have a pair of C3AE-D 427 Low Riser heads I bought back when I was a teenager. They had been ported by Valley Head Service in the San Fernando Valley, and the guy I bought them from was done with hot rods. I ran them on my 390 for a few years before I swapped in a 427.
Back then was the beginning of nitrous oxide kits becoming available and I was along for the ride. There were no real performance head gaskets available except the Ford 427 shim. That would take some abuse but only for so long. I had my D heads o-ringed to the fire ring on the Ford shim and ran a 18 ga. copperwire in them. It worked well.
A few years later I built a 454 inch Hi Riser with some VERY milled heads. The engine ran great but in my reluctance to mill the intake it was a bear to get the motor to seal up. When the rumor mill started the Edelbrock was coming out with an FE head I was one of the first to sign up and pre-ordered a set from Blair's Speed Shop in Pasadena, California. Swore I'd never use iron heads again.

Now I'm old and want to start using some parts off of my junk pile. I want to use my old D heads but I need to use a gasket that the fire ring matches the o-rings. On the 1020 FelPro and the regular blue, my o-rings come inside in a couple places. The other composition gaskets I have do the same. The only gaskets that actually fit the round o-ring that I have are the Titan SCE gaskets I used to run on my blown 427, and some old copper asbestos sandwich jobs that have been at the bottom of my gasket pile for who knows how long.
Long story long...are the old sandwich gaskets any good at all?

[blykins]

You can get some wire, hammer it in, then take a surface cut on the heads. Then you can use whatever gasket you want.

[winr1]

Victor 3389VC dimensions


.......................................................................

Victo superimposed over FP 8045 PT



...........................................................

FP 8045 PT

shell gas station near here

4.365 is the largest diameter where the relief is

4.214 is the largest diameter vertically referencing the pic


............................

FP 8554 PT


4.563 is largest diameter, angled across the hole where the reliefs are

Vertical is 4.320

...................................................................

Perhaps may help ??
..................................................



Ricky.

[winr1]

Where the squish pad is relieved around the intake valve ....

Any do this and flow before and after ??




Ricky.

[Tommy-T]

Thanks for the response, Ricky.
The FelPro 8554 hangs slightly inside the chamber on my heads. I suspect the 8045 will as well. I have not tried the Victor gasket as I do not have one. The o-ring goes slightly inside the black composition Mr.Gasket I have. My observations were made by sliding a head to block dowel in the cylinder head and putting the gasket to the head over the dowel.

The relief by the intake valve on my heads was done by forum member Scott Vincent. I had him "tune up" the heads with 2.15 intake valves, 45* seats, and a general port/bowl clean up. The exhaust seats were done previously. It's difficult to credit/blame Scott for the flow numbers as the heads were initially ported back in the '70's.

Some flow numbers:
Intake
.100  69
.200  145
.300  210
.400  251
.500  267
.600  275  They pretty much stall at 275 as .700 is 277

Exhaust
.100  44
.200  92
.300  122
.400  154
.500  181
.600  193
.700  208

These numbers were by Scotts own flow bench and then backed up by the bench at Slover's Porting Service in San Fernando, California.

I'm slightly surprised none of the old farts around here (I am one as well) have never used the copper sandwich gasket.

[Tommy A]

Tommy,not to hi-jack the thread but was wondering if Ted Wells did them heads when he worked @ Valley Head Service........Tom

[Tommy-T]

I don't know as I bought the heads from the person who had them ported.

[Stangman]

Curious as to the dimple marks around the exhaust valve, is that so the seat dont drop out?

[allrightmike]

     Would you use Ford shim head gaskets if you could find some? I may have a source for you.
Mike.

[mbrunson427]

You can get some wire, hammer it in, then take a surface cut on the heads. Then you can use whatever gasket you want.

I second this. Had a set of TP heads that were o-ringed, this was the solution for them.

[Tommy-T]

Yes, the dimples were part of the exhaust hard seat install.

And yes, I could use some info on the 427 shim gasket availability.

Still curious about the copper sandwich gasket though. I used to see them sitting on the shelf at Ford Power Parts. I might go ahead and use mine.

[allrightmike]

Tommy-t, I will PM you with shim gasket info ASAP. Maybe a day or two.
Mike.

[chris401]

Yes, the dimples were part of the exhaust hard seat install.

And yes, I could use some info on the 427 shim gasket availability.

Still curious about the copper sandwich gasket though. I used to see them sitting on the shelf at Ford Power Parts. I might go ahead and use mine.

That is an old school technique that reappeared when I was pulling Dodge heads for the exhaust seats falling out.