Gasket Making

BigSky

Does anyone make their own gaskets?  Without an original gasket on hand how best can one determine type of gasket matterial & the thickness which one needs for the gasket?    

My last attemp at buying gaskets didn’t go very well, so I’d like to make a few gaskets myself instead.  Ive already made all the gaskets needed for the valve covers and it went well.  Now I need a Water Jacket gasket with 18 bolt holes gets a bit more involved.  Along these lines how does one pick the size of punch to use for the holes?  If there is a 5/16” bolt going thru the gasket should the hole punch be 5/16” as well or something else in diameter?   On the water jacket i was thinking of using the Cork-Rubber matterial by Fel Pro in 1/16” thickness. 

bob ward

For home made gaskets always go up 1/16" in punch size.

For a gasket such as a cork water jacket gasket I would be making it as follows:-
Cut a piece of gasket material 1/2" bigger each way than needed.
Lay it all on a piece of board, centre the cover on the gasket, then using a fine texta colour in 2 corner holes diagonally opposite each other.
Punch those 2 holes then bolt the gasket to the cover, this stops the gasket from wriggling around while you are marking the rest of the holes.
Mark the rest of the holes and the outline of the gasket.
Punch the rest of the holes, do a trial fit on the engine.
If you are happy with the fit cut the outline, buy some cheapie scalpels for that.
Draw the inside of the gasket and cut it.
All done.

KustomKreeps

if this is the first time you have done them then I would recommend first making the template out of cardboard and testing before you go cutting cork.
If you are happy with it then transfer/trace the cardboard template to the cork.

BigSky

I made the water jacket gasket yesterday and it was rather fun.  I actually took the jacket inside & photocopied the surface.  This gave me an exact template to make the gasket from.  

The Lang gasket punch set I ordered arrived yesterday with one punch that wasn’t cut right and naturally it was the 5/16” I needed.  So I used a 30.06 brass rifle shell as my punch with a 2x6 as my backer board.  It worked beautifully & gave me a tighter fit around the bolts than the punch would have.  Hopefully that will help prevent leaks too.  

A little research arch and I found that a 223 Remington cartridge works for 1/4”;  a 9mm pistol cartridge works for 3/8”; a 40 S&W or 10mm pistol cartridge works for 7/16” and a 50 BMG, 500 S&W and 454 Casull cartridge will work for 1/2”.   These may be smaller diameter than the punch set cuts so accuracy of placement may need to be dead on. 

The first photo below is with the gasket under the water jacket.  

Glowplug

Great job, thanks for sharing what you learned.”

schillaz

Do you press in a new primer in the case for each hole you punch? to get additional punching power? hahah

Great idea, thanks for sharing.