Steel Head Gaskets

Thanks Jim. I don't recall why but that is what I thought they were originally

The original head gasket were copper sheets with a sheet of asbestos in between.

31-36 Auburn had cast iron blocks. the early cars had CI heads while the later cars had aluminum heads they all used copper head gaskets .
All had a 'W' on the head. That stood for Williansport. I guess EL owned that factory. I have some new marked 'W' hi- hex cad plated head bolts. Over the years a couple of Cord owners have bought them . They shortened a few as necessary.

I don't recall what letter is on the engine bolts.I do know they could be several letter bolts or they could be plain too. The Cord Lycombing block is cast iron but the heads are aluminum.The head bolts are three different lengths and they are 7/16 national fine threads.

A head gasket in my 1931 ohv V 12 Cadillac failed recently.
It was rebuilt in 2014 using Olson copper gaskets. It had
been milled flat. The suspected problem is that
builder reused original studs and bolts. Suggest
not doing same.

Do Cords use 'W' head bolts like the Auburns ?

Hello Ken. Thanks for this answer. My engine was assembled way back in 1961 from the best parts of two complete engines. My guess is my father and his business partner used the best of what they had. Many gaskets were made from the old yellow pages phone books of the era. So my feelings are they used old used head gaskets that were copper. My heads are original and in poor condition. I have not decided what heads will be used yet. I want the new style that gives more cooling capacity but that requires new head bolts and they are not original so they get a point deduction in judging.. so I'm told. Making a custom set of longer head bolts is plenty of work too but possible..

I am assuming the block and the head are steel. If that is the case, I would suggest that you use the steel/asbestos gaskets. The reason you probably had to replace the old gaskets was due to electrolysis, the chemical reaction of two dissimilar metals.

I purchased a set of what I feel is an oem set of head gaskets. They are a composition gasket. The metal on top and bottom is steel and the material in between this sandwich appears to be asbestos.
The set I removed was a copper material and was wondering what is the preferred type of gasket for the 810 813 Lycoming engines. Thanks for any comments. Pics coming later.