You should NOT put anything on a head gasket of a diesel engine.Way back in the 1970s,maybe,but you are not supposed to put anything on the newer kind of head gaskets.
This argument comes up a lot,and Ive wrenched enough to know better.That copper stuff might work good for a water pump gasket or something,but you need to keep that crap off of a headgasket.
The best thing you can do on a diesel engine is have it as clean as you can get it both the block surface and the head surface.Even if you have these resurfaced,it can cause a head gasket to blow if they dont finish it rough enough.It has to be a certain texture or too smooth and it will blow it out.Once you get it clean,and a new head gasket,put it oun without anything torque it down in steps or how it says to do it,Recheck all of the torques in the same pattern,run it up to operating temperature and if it is still alright,retorque the head bolts after it cools off.You will be surprised at how many will be loose.
I have not ever had very many head gaskets blow on lots of engines that I worked on.Over 100 engines mostly diesels.
That copper stuff will catch on fire and burn up and might start it burning enough to burn out the gasket.Im not a scientist,so I dont know what happens for sure,I just know that it looks like it burns it up.I guess combustion temperature and the extra burning stuff can make it blow out.
A lot of stuff that people do is like that.Somebody will say put sealer on a head gasket,and do it over and over,and in a short time,maybe a year or 2,it will burn out,and the customer will call and of course the guarantee will be over with,and they will take it some place else.
A bad mechanic can break a businessman if he is learning on the businessmans dime.
On the other hand,being a mechanic,stuff like that is job security.
It is really a mistake,or a bad habit.Its not necessary on new style gaskets to use any sealer.
If you had to seal the top of a diesel engine which was due to erosion.Not bad erosion on a diesel engine can be fixed by spraying silver paint on the block and top of the gasket and putting the gasket on while the paint is wet and torque it down.Something about silver paint is not as flammable as that gasket stuff and it will burn a little,but it will probably seal and stay in there.Ive done that a couple of times and it worked.
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