I made a gasket for a 7 HP Briggs upflow carburetor using thick cardboard from the back of an old pad of paper. Installed it after soaking it with oil for sealing it and to prevent seepage of gas. The cardboard gasket worked and now my vintage Montgomery Ward generator runs again. Saved me from spending $30 to $40 for a carb rebuild kit.
Hey 65, Many years ago, I used the cereal box cardboard as a temporary replacement head gasket on an old Craftsman 5 HP Compresser. After I cut the gasket (just like you did in the vid), I dipped it in motor oil, slapped it on and torqued the head in place. The "temporary" Gasket stayed in place until the motor burned up on that old thing!
Head Gaskets are a different beast. I have never tried it but I have reused a lot of head gaskets, even ripped ones with good luck. If you are just trying to get it to run then 2 layers of cereal box cardboard will get you running but just wont last very long(couple hours?). I don't think the copper spray will help but it couldn't hurt either. Let me know how it goes.
Thanks for the excellent video, saves me time and money. Easy to follow too. For the people asking about exhaust gaskets, yes it comes in a thicker metal reinforced sheet, about 1.6mm thick specfically for exhaust gaskets.
Good little tip. I knew of this already but for those who don't this is great on thermostat housings, water pumps, timing covers, oil pans, and a few other places. But where this method truly shines is on throttle body units or carburetors. However if using for stuff like EGR couple it with a thin sheet of copper and sandwich this in between 2 identical copper pieces and you got a metal gasket. Although I promote doing this I probably would not use this method for a head gaskets. You would probably need to use it coupled with the copper if you were going to attempt something like that. Personally I love Victor Reinz head gaskets. But I second using this method for a lot of other stuff. Just use the proper gasket material for the job.
My god, mr speedy :-) Ive done it with sissors in the past, and kellogs cornflakes packet makes a fair gasket, it works great for medium pressure gaskets, i too have been short of money and used what was to hand :-) Ive also coated the cardboard with a smear of hylomar to help the seal :-) Nice to see the old ways still being used :-) nice :-)
Head gaskets are different BEAST ;-) But I used cereal boxes with gun grease to do water thermostat it does work but also I've used silicone to make a gasket and I learnt from my Dad that you use silicone on a Mack truck differentials cause they move and silicone works there.No more leaks.Did the same on my old chevy truck differs and transmission pan also.Also I used paper punches to make round holes,But thanks for the socket idea.
They do sell material to make your own exhaust gaskets. I'm not sure what it is called. I just asked my local auto-parts store and they brought out a chunk of it for me.
You can get heat rated gasket material, but it is hard to find. I would probably only do it if I was in a pinch or had an engine that I couldn't buy one for.
How could anyone give that a thumbs down.. It just proves out of out of thousands of people there are always 7 dickheads who don't have one brain between them.. Great vid!!! Just wondering.. I've made many gaskets out of milk cartons for carbs with great success, what household materials would you use for engine gaskets, if you know of any?? thanks :)
jacob donovan yes tide boxes work great. soak em in oil and can use em for water pumps . food grade shipoing boxes are thin and heavy duty. in the army we used mre boxes for gaskets all the time
Great info. What kind of gasket material do you use. I have a 400 cc 2- stroke for which I need a 1mm thick base gasket. I looked around and seems many are cork/rubber, rubber/ celluloid, treated fibre, or compressed fiber. Not to mention all the.specialty ones. Thanks bro.
I know it's not at all recommended but would it be possible to make a head gasket out of this? I'm trying to find a head gasket for my go kart engine but the company who made the engine is out of business
It's not possible to make a head gasket. I assume you have a Tecumseh engine and parts can be found everywhere. A new head gasket should run you a 5 bucks.
Ramses Your best option is to use soft copper sheet or exhaust gasket material sheet. It will need to be cut by hand. Copper sheet is used on a lot of older motorcycles and is reusable.
Generally rubber is used as it is reusable. They sell gasket material in a lot of different materials. But this method works for all paper, composite and cork gaskets. Cork and composite work best for gasoline (as does rubber).
Great video,thanks a lot,i will try to make some gaskets for a dirtbike cylinder but i don't know how thick should be the material that i buy,maybe 1 mm ?
Whats the best all round gasket material? im doing a complete tear down of my suzuki lt 125 engine to replace all gaskets as it sat forever and to do a new top end and seals, cant find a quality gasket set so gonna attempt making my own, what is the best material i can use for cylinder base gaskets, crankcase gaskets, stator, etc that i could possibly order online?
Auto parts stores will sell a ulk pack with the most common gasket materials for making your own gaskets. The package will generally tell you what materials work best for each application.
I personally would be using a plastic or hard rubber mallet instead of a ball peen hammer that's for damn sure because hitting a block like that is a very bad idea because you will eventually will crack it sooner or later.
