Bloody Percy's Gaskets

[bret a ewing]

No I'm not British.

My bud Mark and myself dropped the FE in the cobra on Saturday. Now time to bolt up the individual exhaust headers!! This is not an easy allignment job, PITA really.
So, we tried Percy's new XX Carbon exhaust gaskets. The construction is basically fuzzy carbon felt attached to both sides of a stainless steel razor blade.........yes, I did say razor, you know where this is headed..........

Holy friggin' WOW.........putting the bolts in the manifold from under the car, the first surgical incision came quickly, it laid open the naughty finger on my left hand. I thought at first it was from the aluminum heat shield. I WAS WRONG.
After applying peroxide & sterri strips I got back to the garage, by that time Mark already had 2 separate blood trails over to the drawer of masking tape to stop the bleeding of his injuries.
When my wife got home there was blood all over the car and garage. Yeah, we were leaking pretty bad and wiping the stuff all over ourselves.......... we looked like a scene right out of "Fight Club". Masking tape on almost every finger we finally took a look at each other and busted out hesterically laughing................shock I presume.

I said "that's it, no mas", and we yanked those *****es out. Because I knew every time I would have to replace spark plugs, pull plug wires or just general cleaning, I would end up with bloody stumps.

Anyway, I ordered a set of Cometics gaskets, in a couple of weeks when the wounds heal we will throw them in.

Hope this was helpfull................

Best, Bret.

[DanEC]

Dang - those things sound like they need a bunch of consumer warning all over them! I worked on installing my header pipes over the weekend also and I agree - they are a PITA. But I used a copper embossed gasket and managed not to leave a blood trail behind me. Hope you heal up fast.

[bret a ewing]

Thanks Dan,

Turkey and beer help the healing process.



Best, Bret.

[bobcowan]

I don't use any gasket - strictly high temp silicone. Cheap, easy to come, fits every time with no hassle.

Also, I wear mechanics gloves a lot. I don't get nearly as many open wounds as I used to. But, duct tape and blue paper towel makes an excellent band aid.

[Mother]

Those nasty cuts on your fingers can be repaired using "Crazy Glue". Thats what is used to stitch up cats paws when they remove their claws.

[bret a ewing]

Thanks Mom,
You are correct, liquid skin woulda worked for 3 or 4 of the perpendicular cuts, we used masking tape to stop the bleeding for those. Sadly, a 1/2 flap slice nearly to the bone needed stitches, 4 others took clean chunks out the knuckles leaving dermis shavings on the gasket.

We would have drove the Twilight folks nutz...hehehee.

Jegs will take them back, I will just have to note the gaskets are full of DNA. "Do Not Touch" kind of thing.

Best, Bret.

[DanEC]

Well, in hindsight my weekend adventure of installing exhaust headers may not have been much better.

I got to thinking last night that - hmmm, I'm using these old 1961 high performance 390 heads that Keith Craft fully ported and re-worked, and I sure hope these nice, expensive SEC copper gaskets are lining up with ports OK since I'm suddenly remember there are about as many variations of exhaust port configurations as for intake port variations on OEM FE heads. Of course with the motor in the car before I received the gaskets its not easy to see how things are lining up. So, I pull one of the header pipes back off and stick my finger down in there - and crap, there is a 1/4 overhang at the top of the port.

So back to the catalog and there are 3 different exhaust port heigths listed for OEM Ford heads. My first guess was 180 degrees wrong so after a bunch of eyeballing and examination, another order is submitted to JEGS and they won't even ship until the 28th. So, two more weeks wait and meanwhile I have another set of unused copper exhaust gaskets to add to my growing collection hanging on the garage wall.

[bret a ewing]

Jegs will take them back.

Just an FYI............try to stay away from the XX Percy's.



Bret.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by bret a ewing

Jegs will take them back.

Just an FYI............try to stay away from the XX Percy's.



Bret.

I did see the Percy gaskets listed - but your thread saved me from making that bloody mistake.

[Bobcat]

Dan .... X2 on what Bob Cowan said on the silicon sealant . I used that on my 63 1/2 Galaxie 427 with cast iron headers with zero leaks since I put them on 8 years ago .
Same for my ERA/Ponds 482 . Used the copper silicon ( hi temp ) stuff when I put the primary pipes on over 4 years ago and zero leaks . A whole lot easier to use and no cuts on the hands .... also a lot cheaper .
I also used silicon on all my dirt cars when racing and had no leaks .
Why use gaskets ????

Bob

[FWB]

So Bret you can now truly say you have blood, sweat and tears, mostly blood, into your build

Fred

[bret a ewing]

Hehehe,

Tru dat.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by Bobcat

Why use gaskets ????

Bob

I don't know - to try something different I guess. Also I chimed in on (or maybe started?) a thread on this about 2 months ago and the consensus was to go with copper gaskets. I think ERAChas was about to threaten my standing as an ERA owner if I didn't - or maybe that was about DOT 5 brake fluid issue.

Actually, I've used high-temp silicone on my 66 Corvette and 67 GTX exhaust manifolds without any problems. The Corvette manifolds have been on there for about 16 years now. I actually have exhaust gasket sets hanging on the wall for both but have had no reason to use them. I think there was something about the confined engine compartment, trying to wiggle the individual pipes in place, then trying to wiggle the dang slip joint collectors up on them before I could tighten the bolts - that intimidated me. It seemed easier to just slip a gasket in place and not have to worry about accidently smearing sealent around or it kicking off before I could get everything fitted up and the bolts tightened.

[GT350Mike]

As my Grandmother would say, "Bless your heart!"

I worked on my exhaust header tubes this weekend and felt pretty fortunate to only have a few nicks.

I did some research and found a photo of the guy who designed these exhaust gaskets. Seems he would have already put a warning labels on the packaging.