Head Gasket Sealer What do you use ?

Hi gang

Question whats the best head gasket sealer.

Been looking on Ebay and other sites what to use.

Seems to be so many types or is it just me.

Andy .......OHM....

Never fitted a head gasket with sealant that's the gaskets job.
And I've done a few engines from singles to large Cat V8's

gasket sealant shoul not be used with the gasket for most cases, the sealant can distroy some gaskets.
But I have used it many times on old stationary engines, mainly while waiting to find proper gaskets, and when i used to do banger racing.

Rodit

I make most of my gaskets mate, can you not do the same
head gasket sealer sounds messy...

Hi Guys, I`m new on this forum, as to gasket sealer, if the head and the top of the block is"flat" and clean you dont need any sealer just a smear of grease on both sides of the gasket to help bed it in. if you are using a all copper gasket you will need to re aneal every time you use it.that is to heat it up to cherry red then cool it quickly, this softens the copper and helps it bed in.
regards tony

I usually use a smear of Hylomar on stationary engine head gaskets  (the blue one) Just recently i discovered a Hylomar product that resembles the old Red Hermatite that i used many years ago. Despite what people say about the red stuff, It worked. I've bought a tube of red Hylomar & (no doubt to other peoples horror) I'm going to give it a try.(i've already used it on one of my bamfords, not on the head though) Stationary engine surfaces are seldom perfect & i feel that a smear of compound does more good than harm. EDIT---It's called, Hylomar,---Hylotyte Red. Looks like good stuff. (Complaints on a postcard please, addressed to your local recycling facility.  )

Hi All, I have just returned from a "crank up " at a mates place, and one of the lads has this old American vertical engine (can`t remember the make) and the inighter was blowing at the gasket. As you all know that when an engine won`t run every body is an "expert". when I had a look at the problem I found that some time in the past one of the two holding bolts had stripped the thread in the head and had pulled out and chipped part of the mating surface. the damaged bolt had been replaced with a length of studding and held in with plastic metal, part of this plastic metal was filling the chip in the casting, and it was this that had come away. two or three people had tried to fill this chip with gasket sealer with no sucsess. later the engine was put back in the van. the only way to repair this is to skim the flange to remove the chip.
what some people forget is when an engine is under compression the pressure in the cylinder can be as much as 100psi, and that is before the charge of fuel is ignited.
As to the type of sealer I use it is blue hylomar and I only use it on one side as a last resort.
regards tony