bccan

Need to do some exhaust gaskets on the red car so I was browsing choices. Think I知 gonna try the SCE 4079 copper gaskets.

While looking @ SCE I noticed that they list a 4179 gasket for Edelbrock Heads (which I have on blue car) and I知 curious what痴 up with that since it seems to be only SCE that lists a different gasket. My only guess was that they may be mis listed & actually for Battens.

Anyone able to shed light on this?

joe_padavano

Don't know about SCE gaskets, but my current header gasket of choice is Remflex. By far the best I've ever used. Just pay close attention to the header bolt torque. You don't want to overtighten and squish the gaskets.

Gerald Nickels

Joe can you post a pic or two of your cars. I know you have more but just the Olds cars.
Me I'm down to a 65 442 HT, or send them to me if you don't like posting. I will not post pics.
Gerald

matt69olds

If the headers are flat, any gasket will work ok. The important thing is not to overtorque the center bolt too much. If the headers are off the car, run a large file across the flange. You might be surprised how warped they are.

bccan

I have run the Mr Gasket Ultra Seal (5945) for the last decade or more with good results. This car is a 24/7/365 car for over 10 years now & I think it needed gaskets 1 other time. I trust Joe’s insights & plan to try the Remflex 11-001.

Still curious about that SCE listing if anyone can shed light on separate listing for Edebrock heads.

oddball

Several companies have edelbrock variants of their header gaskets - Flatout is another example. Generally anyone that paid attention and made Batten gaskets went ahead and made special Edelbrock gaskets too.
The edelbrock exhaust ports have a raised floor. The top half of the port is basically the same as the OE, but the floor is much higher. So if you custom built headers to match the smaller (not raised! just smaller) port, a stock gasket won't seal the bottom half of the port.
In reality, nearly every header is made to the OE port shape, so you use stock shape gaskets. Getting a header with a small enough primary to actually get closer to the edelbrock port shape is pretty tough.

tl;dr: just use the standard shape gasket.

Also, Remflex are awesome. They seal exceptionally well. They're also very fragile. I'm going to try Flatout's copper on the next round. Supposedly they're reusable....?

joe_padavano

Well, they're flat, soft copper. The only way they seal is to deform to match the irregularities in the mating surfaces. I guess you can reuse them if you can re-compress the copper to seal again. Depends on how malleable the copper is and how flat the mating surfaces are to start with. At some point the material has to work-harden.

oddball

Yup, hence the dots and question mark. I've seen a number of comments that they are reusable, but little official information. Sooner or later I'll find out for certain. Supposedly the reusability has to do with the rubber coating, but seems like that would have problems with the temp.

OLDSter Ralph

I going to add my two cents worth here. Solid copper can be reusable by annealing at home. They may not be the best material for surfaces that are excessively out of flat, they deform to some extent, but won't seal everything.

BUT, the rubber coating mentioned by oddball changes things. Copper can be heated very hot with a propane torch and dropped in room temperature water (quenched) to anneal solid copper. I do this on old British motorcycle head gaskets all the time. In the "industrial world" solid copper seal washers can be reused this way.

Remflex sounds like a good choice for tubular exhaust headers and cast iron exhaust headers.