Just a quick note on copper coat gasket compound. A friend of mine mentioned it offhand and I saw it at the register so I got a can. When swapping engines (I have had a real hard time with engines lately) I decided to reuse the plenum gasket, exhaust manifold gaskets, and exhaust gaskets. I also sprayed it on new head gaskets. I'd just bought too many of them and decided what the heck. This would normally be a recipe for exhaust and vacuum leaks.

But it worked! I just cleaned everything with brake cleaner then alcohol, sprayed a couple of coats, and they worked perfectly. A can of it is far less than one of those gaskets.

I had to take the plenum gasket off. No mess. I re sprayed it and no leaks.

 

I keep a can at all times. Have since Auto mechanics 1972. Rover Mechanic, Indy shop, put my sons 04 on lift, to locate oil leak from front cover. I had done hg on it 6 months ago. He told my son, whoever did hg, knew what they were doing. My son asked why he said that, mechanic replied, "he used copper spray".

 

That makes it unanimous. Good stuff! I have to admit that I just impulse-bought it but I will take a win however it arrives. I know it works because when I took the exhaust off the gaskets stayed in place. If it works on the exhaust it works everywhere.

 

but only use it on one side

 

Use it as you will, I use it on both sides of hg, water pump, front cover, intake manifold to heads, plenum, even valve cover gaskets.

 

Why would you only use it on one side?

 

Like I stated previously, I started using this in Auto Mechanics in high school way back in 1971(4hrs a day for 2 school years). The Instructor was a race car engine builder from the late 50s to the late 60s. We hung the gasket on a wire and sprayed both sides of gaskets. Gasket material back then really only consisted of paper and cork materials, except for head gaskets which were mainly metal(except for some composite gaskets made by companies like felpro or MR. Gasket). The copper spray on metal head gaskets were used for its sealing properties and heat transfer from the copper. A lot of companies went to adding their own sealer to the head gaskets, but I use it religiously, and do not have leaks.

 

From my limited experience with it, it looks like the spray keeps the gasket in place and would fill any tiny imperfections in the mating surfaces. I don't know how well that theory holds up for head gaskets and the compression in a head (seems to be holding up well) but this is the first time I haven't had an exhaust leak or plenum leak after one of my engine carnivals and thats a pretty big deal to me.

 

I just wanted to follow up in my original post with some real world observations.

I have pulled and reused my plenum gasket with copper coat on it three times and do not have any vacuum leaks. That's truly incredible. Copper coat is amazing. I purposely did not re spray it after the first application.

I also pulled the heads. This is where it got interesting. Luckily I was changing the heads and adding studs off of the truck because I could not remove the heads by hand even with the bolts out and even with a mallet. With the engine on a stand, I had to pull the heads off with the engine crane. Amazing. That is a real seal. However, I could not do that with studs and the engine in the truck, so I did not apply it to the new head gaskets.

Removal is easy with brake cleaner and a towel.

 

Thanks for tip, Charlie. I couldn't find the spray stuff at any store I went to today - they only had it in tubes - but I ordered some on amazon here (Permatex) https://www.amazon.com/Permatex-8069...UDQ/ref=sr_1_2