copper vs steel gaskets

[jveik]

my motor could use a thinner head gasket, it's a 383 with aluminum heads, and i was wondering if i would have to use gaskets with steel rings or if i could use gaskets with copper rings... the thinner ones have copper rings, thats why i ask

[silicon212]

The copper ring gaskets are typically for high performance applications, so my guess would be yes, they will work.

[jveik]

cool, thanks for the advice. my time working in the electrical field has taught me, among other things, that copper is much more malleable, so i figured it would conform to irregularities better and "smash" better than steel would

[silicon212]

Originally Posted by jveik

cool, thanks for the advice. my time working in the electrical field has taught me, among other things, that copper is much more malleable, so i figured it would conform to irregularities better and "smash" better than steel would

That's what makes it a high performance gasket material. It seals much better on high compression engines.

One thing to keep in mind is that a thinner head gasket makes a higher compression ratio, sometimes bringing this up by .2 points. Keep this in mind if you find your engine starts pinging a bit more.

[j cAT]

Originally Posted by jveik

my motor could use a thinner head gasket, it's a 383 with aluminum heads, and i was wondering if i would have to use gaskets with steel rings or if i could use gaskets with copper rings... the thinner ones have copper rings, thats why i ask

solid copper head gaskets would give the best durability....especially on older engine with aluminum....

[jveik]

yeah i was aiming for more compression because i am building a copy of a motor built by chevyhiperformance magazine. only problem is they got the heads milled so they went down from 65cc chambers to 64, so i figured that i would get thinner head gaskets than the ones they used to somewhat offset the fact that mine will still be 65 cc chambers