Nippy head gasket

[Scarlet O'Hara]

Spent some time this week making a copper head gasket for the Type 65. The car has run for years with a standard high compression gasket so why bother? The combustion chambers of a Nippy head are a slightly different shape. They’re something in-between a standard low and high compression head and as I had the engine out of the car to sort some other issues it seemed like a good time to have a go at making one.  Spot the difference time!

                   

[Chris KC]

Bravo Scarlet! Something I've often thought about (I even inherited a lovely sheet of copper from my dad who also often thought about it but never did it!)

How did you cut it out - punches? 

I'd be prepared for some leaks first time out but see no reason it shouldn't do its job.

[dickie65]

Good job,
It looks just like the ones in my garden shed only a bit newer.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Scarlet, here is the very car with 'Father' at the wheel giving it some welly (straight cut teeth)!

[Scarlet O'Hara]

What a screamer, thanks for the memory Rory, return to Guildtown (near Perth) pencilled in for 2020.

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Hi Chris It was a long and tedious process and I’m sure others will have a quicker way of doing it with the right equipment but this is how I did it.
Started off by making two stepped hollow dowel pins with an outside diameter of 11/32” to suit the stud holes in the head reduced to 5/16” at one end. This was then drilled through ¼” diameter for a clamp bolt. I also turned up a 5/16” drill guide with an 11/32 outside diameter to suit the holes in the head. It’s really only a very thin sleeve to keep the drill central.

   

After drilling one 5/16 hole in the copper sheet in about the right place I then clamped it in-between two heads using one of the dowel pins to locate the copper centrally with the 11/32 clearance hole in the head for the stud.

   

Using the drill guide I then drilled another 5/16 hole at the opposite end of the head from the first hole, I inserted the second dowel pin to ensure the copper sheet didn’t move and clamped it at that end.

   

Using the drill guide I then drilled the remaining 12 stud holes using the head holes as a pattern.
The blank gasket was then fitted onto an old block and clamped in position using a head before drilling from the base of the block up through the valve guides.

   

The gasket was then removed and hole cutters used to approximately cut out the hole above the piston and the combustion chamber above the valves. The bulk of the combustion chamber shape was then cut out by joining up these three holes.

After that it’s just a lot of filing and scraping using the head as a template to get the right shape.

Apologies if it’s not very clear but I found it really difficult to put into words, hopefully the photos might help.

[John Mason]

That drill guide can also be used in conjunction with the head to drill out sheared off head studs as per Illistrated in Woodrow. In Woodrow it shows a pilot hole being drilled first with a similar guide but for a smaller drill. However if you use the larger drill first just to mark the centre the pilot hole can be drilled without a guide then going back to the larger guide to accurately drill out the stud keeping it straight.

John Mason

[Timothy P]

Looks a brilliant job.
Lovely video too Ruairidh, a great watch.

[Chris KC]

Scarlet you seem to have done a great job of keeping it flat which is the main thing I think.

I made a few notes about installation when reading about this before, I've never tried but for what it's worth:
- clean the gasket with a solvent, gently brushing with a scotchbrite pad on a flat surface, before and after annealing.
- benefit of annealing is debatable but do anneal if you have to straighten bends out (prevents cracks due to work hardening)
- if you do anneal don't use oxyacetylene (it's too hot), heat only to dull cherry red
- better to remove the block studs, lay the gasket on, then re-insert the studs, than to force the gasket down over the studs (but if I did the latter I'd use the head to drive it down evenly).
- use a light coat of spray-on gasket sealant both sides
- you may still need 'stop leaks' in your coolant

[dickie65]

It Appears that I will be able to get a 3D scan of my Original Nippy Heads Gasket, it will then be possible to get a few cut by waterjet.
I will get a Manifold Gasket scanned as well.
I might be able to sneak the files in with a batch of stuff cut for work later in the year.
Work often has stuff cut by water jet and lazer.

[Phil Kingdom]

A friend and I fitted a solid copper head gasket to a Chrysler 65 a while back we annealed it in a large gas powered BBQ.