12 replies to this topic

[miniBrain]

I've bought 3 or 4 sub £10 copper gaskets from ebay suppliers over the last 18 months or so and I've had problems every time.

 

A couple of weeks ago I noticed my rocker cover was full of mayonnaise - again! And there was plenty of it - enough disgustingness to fill a small jar.

 

So this time decided to buy an £18 Payen gasket. Perfect results so far (only a couple of hundred miles to date - but the other gaskets showed problems within this period).

 

Yes, I am a tight wad and for that reason, its Payen every time from now on - its going to be cheaper in the long run! 

 

[minidaves]

cheap is not cheap in the long run quality is more important

[IainNeon91]

Is it a small bore or big bore engine? (998 or 1275?)

 

Next time the head is off it might be worth taking it to your local engine shop to get check for straightness. 

 

If its a 1275 and the head/block faces are straight, I always recommend the BK450 payen gasket. I've never had one fail.  

[Rocket.]

Buy cheap buy twice.

[miniBrain]

Is it a small bore or big bore engine? (998 or 1275?)

 

Next time the head is off it might be worth taking it to your local engine shop to get check for straightness. 

 

If its a 1275 and the head/block faces are straight, I always recommend the BK450 payen gasket. I've never had one fail.  

 

Small bore. Gaskets failed with two different heads. One head was newly refurbished - unleaded seats plus skimmed. The refurbished head is back on and everything looks OK.

[coopdog]

Yeah I had so much trouble with copper gaskets, used 3 and all leaked with two different heads, now changed to payen and works perfectly


Haha edited so it actually makes sense, must of been a bit more blitzed than I thought last night haha

Edited by coopdog, 18 December 2015 - 01:43 PM.

[racingbob]

yes calver states he sees so much hassle with these

 

other than payen gaskets

[rally1380]

On the BK450 payen gasket front.....I had one fitted to a fresh engine build, had the car running, Mot'd and then went for a test drive and an exhaust valve stuck open......queue lots of nasty sounding engine noise!!!!

 

Traced the issue down to a numpty engineer not listening to my requirements.....anyway, I had a rally the next day and no spare head gasket.  I removed the head with bent valve, cleaned up the piston which had a slight dent in it  and fitted my spare head using the USED    BK450 headgasket!!!! 

 

That was over a year ago and I've done 3 rallies since using the same headgasket as I am still yet to rebuild the troublesome head!

 

I'm not saying that is a good thing to do, and I now have a stock of BK450's for the 'just in case' moments, but they must be made well for me to reuse one!!!!!!

 

Luck....maybe, but I could not recommend the BK450 gasket enough.

[jaydee]

When talking about small bore engines:

The Peyen gasket for the small bore engine is copper, just smeared with a better sealant.

A copper gasket offers a few advantages, but requires the skills and the patience if reliability is your goal.

The thruth is in the hand and the experience of who's doing the job.

You can fit the fail-proof BK450 to a small bore engine, you just need slight modification to a water way hole.

There is another composite gasket available for small bore engine, my experience says use a copper gasket or modify a BK450.

[Dusky]

Bk450 on a smallbore will lower compression by a bit as well, something to keep in mind when building performance engines :)

[racingbob]

never had a problem with the af460 copper gasket

 

smeared with bit of grease that was on my race mini

[FlyingScot]

+1 Payen BK450, never had an issue.

FS

[miniBrain]

Seems unanimous - Payen FTW!

 

Been 300 miles since I swapped heads and no problems whatsoever. The last time I did a head change, I saw signs of mayo on the first 100 miles with a cheapo gasket.