Copper exhaust gaskets any good?

[ChaosAD]

Has anyone tried using copper for the turbine housing inlet and outlet gaskets on a turbo?

Gizzmo have a bit of advertising for their copper exhaust gaskets on the packaging for their phenolic thermal spacers but there is nothing about them on their website.

Reason for asking is the gaskets for the turbo i'm using are about $120 a piece ex japan.

[MR2BOY23]

What turbo?

Chris from All Tech might be able to help you thats where I got my turbo gaskets from

[evil_si]

yes ive used copper in the past, works well,

[matt dunn]

I have tried a few various gaskets between the turbo and the exh manifold. None lasted more than a few laps including the expensive genuine nissan one.

My new theroy is it can't blow the gasket if there isn'e one,
so the surfaces were machined flat and bolted together with no gasket and no sealer, straight steel to steel,
and has been the best yet. No leak as such and no problems.

[ChaosAD]

Sweet, I'll give them a ring. Its an MHI td04L but doesnt have the standard t2 flange.

You dont have to o'ring the turbo or anything like you do with a copper head gasket?
What thickness did you go for and does it have to be two pieces laminated together? or just the one

This is just a street car so as long as its up to the same standard as the stock one it should be fine.

I've heard of people doing that but the machining costs would probably be as much as the genuine gaskets

[cat007]

I have tried a few various gaskets between the turbo and the exh manifold. None lasted more than a few laps including the expensive genuine nissan one.

My new theroy is it can't blow the gasket if there isn'e one,
so the surfaces were machined flat and bolted together with no gasket and no sealer, straight steel to steel,
and has been the best yet. No leak as such and no problems.

I can understand your theory about the 'cant blow a gasket if it's not there' - BUT, and this is a big BUT, you'd have to get the surfaces so freaken smooth for it to seal properly! The tolerances between the two surfaces would have to be very very fine.

Also what do you mean, 'no leaks as such'? As in no major ones? Or none at all?

[ChaosAD]

Apparently you check the surfaces against a piece of marble or glass to be sure they're dead smooth

[atmosports]

I've done the no gasket thing a bit as well. But generally I've just surfaced both flanges & then give them a thin smear of high temp silicone & bolt them up as you only need enough to fill in any low spots, but even with any sealant there has never been any noticeable leaks. The two surfaces don't have to be as smooth as you think to get a decent seal, not like trying to get two metal surfaces to seal off a liquid under high pressures.

Glass isn't alway flat/smooth enough for checking flatness etc.

[matt dunn]

I just get the surfaced like you get a head surfaced,
and bolt them up.
And by no leaks, I can't see hear or feel any leaks,

but the whole exhaust system is just slip joints and there is no muffler,
so there's alwys a bit of noise floating around so it's not quiet to listen for every last little bit.

[QikStarlie]

have also done the no gasket thing with good results. i used a bit or copper based anti seize on the surfaces also, not sure if it helped the cause or not though.