Can anyone recommend a shop that would be capable of duplicating a 216 stovebolt head gasket in soft copper sheet metal, maybe about 1/16" thick? I'm in the process of building a Frankenstein "216" that's probably going to have around 9:1 compression or more, and it won't surprise me if an OEM head gasket won't handle the pressure. On the supercharged tractor pull engines I used to build, we used a solid copper head gasket with a stainless steel "fire ring" fitted into a shallow groove machined into the block that imbedded itself into the copper. I'm thinking I'll need to do something similar, and use Grade 8 studs instead of head bolts to hold the head on. The oddball combustion chamber shape of the stovebolt head probably won't allow the fire ring to be used, but the solid head gasket will probably be stronger than original. Thanks in advance!
Jerry
