Anyone spotted any good prices on a head gasket?

[Courtney]

Looking for a head gasket for when I pull this head, as it's the original one from 33 yrs ago and I'm not expecting it to come off nicely. So far I've found one on Eb** for $32.00 bucks plus $8.00 shipping. It's an Athena which I like as they make good parts from Italy. I use their parts on my hopped up Zuma scooter, and they are top quality. Has anyone seen one that can beat that, because this one has to come from Britain.

[crazy steve]

Jump on the 32 buck one, that's a good price.....

[Courtney]

K, thanks Steve, think you're right.

[natemoen]

Someone needs to get come copper and start making some for us!

[MaximPhil]

Hi Coutney,
as a card carrying Cheap Bastard even I could see the merit of a complete gasket set from Parts & More. To remove the head after all these years and not freshen it up seems like a waste to me.
Nice new valve stem seals after a little lapping of the valves and a good cleaning of the combustion chamber. Fresh exhaust and cam cover gaskets and all set for another 30 years

Phil

[Courtney]

Yep, good point as well Phil. I will ponder this, as it makes total sense.

[TomB]

Someone needs to get come copper and start making some for us!

Or make your own, its easy enough, I used 0.9mm copper coz it was available, the original gasket in compressed form was 1.2mm so I up'd the compression a bit. I annealed to cherry red and allowed to cool in air, a thin smear of silicon sealant was used around the camchain tunnel when fitting.
I've now done a few Euro trips and many more 1000's of miles here with no issues, and the good thing with a copper gasket is its re-useable, just anneal it each time you re-use it.
Heres the write up I did at the time.

Copper Head Gasket
I used the head as a template and spotted through the holes with a drill, then clamped the old head gasket to the copper as a pattern to scribe round, doesn't need to be too good as most of the head gasket is hidden, round the camchain tunnel and outer cylinder edges are visible, I then bolted the copper to a piece of plastic, I roughly cut round the shape with a hacksaw then used a sanding disc in my hand drill to clean up the edges making sure to have the direction of the disc always pushing the copper against the plastic. Bore holes were made by drilling some 10mm holes in a line to get a hacksaw blade in then by hand cut out the hole, they need cleaning up more accurately with a half round file now I have the barrels off to use as a template, the original gasket was sloppy as hell

[Courtney]

Tom, when you gonna start knocking them out?
BTW, I ended up buying one today for 40 bucks total to my door here in Canada. Not bad. I will be making a template of it before I put it on the bike. In my spare time, I'll be knocking out a copper one for myself, but will use the thicker copper I have access to here.

[TomB]

The head gaskets you buy are made to fit the engine in any of the overbore sizes, so are pretty sloppy fit. When I made mine I made it a fit on the barrels' dowls, if you make one from a template I'd imagine errors creeping in so I think you'd be best making the gasket but leaving a small amount left on to remove when you are going to fit it and make it a snug fit on your barrels.

The problem with me knocking them out is they'd probably cost the same as others you can buy simply because of time taken and copper prices, one sheet of copper is scroungable (d'you lads use the word scrounge? = pick up for nothing) and they are very easy to make requiring little skill but do take a whole afternoon to make, so time spent knocking them out would cost, free when making your own. And think of the satisfaction you gain from making your own. .....or is that just me being weird



.

[CaptonZap]

The head gaskets you buy are made to fit the engine in any of the overbore sizes, so are pretty sloppy fit. When I made mine I made it a fit on the barrels' dowls, if you make one from a template I'd imagine errors creeping in so I think you'd be best making the gasket but leaving a small amount left on to remove when you are going to fit it and make it a snug fit on your barrels.

The problem with me knocking them out is they'd probably cost the same as others you can buy simply because of time taken and copper prices, one sheet of copper is scroungable (d'you lads use the word scrounge? = pick up for nothing) and they are very easy to make requiring little skill but do take a whole afternoon to make, so time spent knocking them out would cost, free when making your own. And think of the satisfaction you gain from making your own. .....or is that just me being weird



.

Tom, you being a machinist, might be able to confirm a theory of mine, to whit, a copper gasket requires a very flat surface on the mating faces of the head and block to affect a good seal. A normal fiber gasket will crush more or less to take up the variations in clearance between them.
Copper will expand more when hot, and may tighten up at high temperature, but I don't see how it can take up more than .0005 inch clearance, and how many inline 4 heads and cylinders are that flat?
The idea of a reusable gasket is appealing, but it's use should also include making sure that the other components are such that it can operate in it's physical limits.
Any thoughts you'd care to share?
Looking for a perfect fix, CZ

[TomB]

A very good question, there are two answers really....

1. Annealed copper is extremely soft, you'd be amazed at how much it will take up, certainly much more than half a thou (0.0005"), I've seen used gaskets with 3 thou steps in them where they'd compressed into the gap between cast iron liner and aluminium. Try annealing a small section of your donor copper before starting to make your gasket, you'll see what I mean, I tried and could leave a thumb nail mark its so soft.

2. The head/barrels rarely have steps bigger than a few thou, as in - a sudden 3+ thou difference in machined face. However they might easily have a 3+ thou warp in them, so once the head is torqued down it will pull down to the same profile as the barrels (jugs) top, with a flat level gasket between the two this isn't a problem with all sealed.

I did use a smear of clear silicon sealant on head and barrel sides of the gasket when fitting.

Still in doubt? my old Triumph uses the same idea from new and I've never experienced leaks on that and re-used the gasket. Where dya think I stole the idea from


.

[Courtney]

Well Tom even if you charged the same for one of your gaskets, say $50 bucks or more, people would buy them because they are reuseable. That is the big attraction.

[TomB]

I'm sure theres more folk out there as daft as me that want to be lifting the head occasionally, but I kinda think the attraction of the XS1100 for most owners is that you don't need to work on them as they're so reliable. Yes they're over 30 years old now and may need rings, valve guide seals, etc, but most folk would want to do that job then never re-open the engine up again. Re-usable head gasket? limited market. If they were to be made mass produced they'd be better off made on a CNC machine in minutes each once a program is written. Any CNC'ers out there fancy having a go??

And I'm not touting for work, I've more than I can get through, more trying to encourage lads on here to have a go at making one themselves and save some cash. Or at least the engine twiddlers like myself to have a go, its more them that this is aimed at.

Go for it lads