All copper header collector gasket??

[EricB]

I was down at a couple local muffler shops at lunch looking for some replacement gaskets for the header collector to exhaust joint and someone showed me an all copper gasket.

Thinner by far than your average paper+metal ring gasket and entirely made out of copper and featuring a circular groove pressed into it around the exhaust opening. I'd never seen anything like it before... Have I been trapped in a dark cave unaware of this for years? Is it a new thing? Does it even seal well?

Curious to hear what you all have to say.

-e

[EricB]

Found 'em on the net:

http://www.scegaskets.com/products/procoppex.html

And a quick look at their site shows they even make headgaskets for our L6's in six thicknesses ranging from 0.8mm to 2.36mm for an 87.3mm gasket bore size.

-e

[dogma420]

That is interesting....I wonder if they really work....

did you get one? do they cost a lot more? They make it sound like once it's installed you won't have to replace it (believe that when I see it)....

If they did work, wow, I'd get a set next time...

[240ZX]

Eric, if the mating surfaces between your collector/tailpipe are really flat then I would suspect a solid copper gasket will work well. Also, being solid copper, you can reuse it by annealing it (it will bring it back to a soft condition). This is done by heating it with a torch until it just turns cherry red, then quickly quench it in cool water....done!

[EricB]

I understand what you mean about annealing and I'd be willing to try on a header collector gasket... but can you imagine doing that on a headgasket???

I kept searching online and ended up on some Cobra forum where it was pretty much fifty fifty... one half said they'd had them on for 25K miles w/o any problems while the other said they found leaks in 28 of 32 places (this was for header gaskets).

I don't know what their headgaskets cost but I did see that an off the shelf collector gasket to fit say an MSA 6-2-1 was somewhere in the $12-15 range.

-e