Copper Head Gasket Thickness Min/Max

Not sure whether this is a weird question or not, but here goes.......

Let's say that a person wanted to experiment with a range of compression ratios, whether on the dyno or at the track. It's pretty hard to have boxes of different pistons and shelves full of cylinder heads with different sized chambers, but it would be practical to have various thicknesses of copper head gaskets. Ignore squish and deck clearance for a minute.

Let's take this idea one step further, and assume that there will be a receiver groove in the top of the sleeve, and solid SS wire pressed into the head, and that the geometries of these are "fixed" amongst all of the parts that will be swapped in & out.

So, would there there then be some sort of a practical max & min thickness limit for the dead soft copper head gaskets? Any idea of what that range of thicknesses might span?

I know that some alky & nitro teams juggle gasket thicknesses routinely. How wide a range can you cover before the fixed wire & receiver groove just can't get the job done?

If .040" is near the low side, what might the high side be?

Thanks.

 

I have some that are .097 and they do go a little thicker.
Brian

 

Thanks. If a person left the wire & receiver grooves alone, could a person still swap in/out gaskets from say .040 to .100 thick? More? Less?

 

Squish me

dont forget on the fontana, it also changes the rocker ratio by altering head gasket thickness, so lift may be lost or gained by doing that. .032 is thin, and i have some almost .100.dan

 

I've gone from .042 to .080 without issues. Clark Copper Head Gaskets told me once the thicker ones are more forgiving as they can conform better to things that aren't perfect, like surface finish and flatness.

 

I actually change push rods when making those big changes FWIW

 

I would recommend checking the amount of the wire out of the head and adjust accordingly. We had a set that the wire was about 18 thou (if memory serves) and it would cut through an .042 gasket after a couple of on/offs. Different set was 3 or 4 thou less and they worked fine.