Kawasaki Z1 Super Six Copper Gaskets - How it's Made

in this episode of How It's Made I'm gonna be talking about how many more copper cylinder head gaskets my accounts like he's f1 super 6 and also my paper gaskets been waiting for this parcel for several days I hope it's the copper for my z1 super 6 gaskets but took it out in the garden so open it just in case and removed a copper and yes one point two millimeter thick 99% pure copper I just wash my hands and I'm out in the garage to start making them I'm going to make the copper gaskets in two pieces with the left-hand side and the right-hand side and the cam Tanner will have the standard o-ring the first thing we have to do is to cut the copper sheet in half so to do this I first measure and Mark a line in the center then take it into my shed in the shed I'm going to use my bandsaw to cut the copper sheet in half I wear ear defenders for this job it can get very noisy the trick is to go quite slow not push too hard to do the straight line [Music] [Music] back in the garage I use a file to take a fool of the Bears from the store in process with all the Bears gone I get the barrels and place them on my bench then place the copper sheets on top with the right-hand side and the left-hand side then I use a masking tape to fix the copper sheets to the top of the barrels and hold them tight I then carefully turn over the barrels and rest them down onto the copper sheet on my bench using a scribe er I scribe around the bottom of the boar onto the copper sheet to make a line to cut you later with all six balls marked I turn the barrels back over and remove the copper sheets and there you can see the three cylinders marked out on each side then using a black pen I mark the center's just by eye I will be using these special sheet metal drills for drilling a hole in the center at each marked of cylinder I need to make it 12 millimeter diameter so it starts off at 6 goes up to 8 up to 10 and I stop at 12 and Meteor these drills they don't grab or try and twist the metal while you're drilling that's one side drill now for the other with the three holes drilled in each piece I will then be using my q-max cutter to enlarge the hole to 52 millimeters diameter this is a key max cutter these are designed for cutting holes in sheet metal normally you have a bolt for the center and you clamp one piece each side do the bolt up and it cuts the hole when they get this big it can be very hard so I decided to do it in my vise with the first hole cut I proceeded to do the other five with the holes cut at 52 millimeter using my keen max cutter the next job is to increase the size to 70 millimeters using my curved internal tin snips it's always best to trim off a little bit at a time gradually increasing the size to the required size otherwise you might find yourself cutting it too big and you can't put the metal back on well that's the hole was trimmed to 70 millimeters it's now time to try them over the bow and see how it looks and they look great I'm really pleased with that so the next thing is to clean them up a little bit with a file just to take off all the sharp edges from using the tin snips [Music] after I finished firing all six boars I used my dremel with a sanding disc to smooth down the surface and make it all smooth and shiny with the polishing complete I place the two copper gaskets back on top of the cinder block and get ready to mark out the periphery and drill the holes where the studs are going to go an easy way to mark out a gasket is to use sticky back plastic you can buy it in a roll really cheaply on eBay first cut our piece of sticky back plastic roughly to the size you want to use so in this case I just cut it in half and it was perfect one for each side just checking it fits then peel off the backing and stick it onto the cinder block pressing down firmly next I need to cut out the holes where the sitting de Bourgh's are so I rub around my finger first so I can see where they are then using a sharp knife cut out the holes you lean the blade on the edge of the board as you go around then you produce a nice circle using a soft instrument like a back of a ballpoint pen or a Parker Pen to press around the hole but don't punch through just to press down to make it visible because you don't be cutting these out with sharp knife shortly now trim out the holes using a sharp knife rest against the edge of the hole and just rotate it around it will form a perfect circle which will be used as a guide to drill holes in the copper later stage with the holes cut you can use a sharp blade to follow the edge of the cylinder barrel removing the excess material to form a perfect template to make the new gasket with the sticky back plastic template cut out gently peel it off being careful not to stretch it or tear it then place it onto the copper lining up the bores when you're happy it's lined up press down tight then repeat for the other side back in the shed I use my bandsaw to cut out the gasket following closely the edge of this particular plastic template when using the bandsaw it's important to let the blade cut through the sheet don't try and force it through and keep an eye on the edge when you're doing the cut to make sure you follow the right shape it can take a while but the end result will be worth it [Music] we both the gaskets cut out or go back to the garage to mark out the holes using a center punch mark the center of each hole now using my sheet metal drill I drill the holes where the studs are going to pass through stopping at the 12 millimeter cutting size with a drilling complaint or remove the template then I use a file to clean up the edges and remove all the bars then using some a Burnett cloth I go along my filed surface to remove any burrs from the edges to finish off I use my dremel with a sanding disc this producers are really nice shine and a really smooth surface finally I stamped the gasket left and right so I can't get them mixed up in the future and here's the finished gasket its resting on top of the cylinder block and I'm really pleased with them they look great but the next job is to anneal them so I go out to the utility room and run a couple of inches of water in the sink then using my map gas blowtorch I heat them up until they're glowing red hot and drop them in the water to quench dropping the red-hot copper in water makes it go soft and malleable you're both caskets quenched I'll go back in the garage and finally try them on myself in the block and they look great so that's how I meant copper gaskets next I'm going to show you how I make my paper gaskets but first I'm gonna use my 35 year old Dyson to clean up all the mess and a bit of sharps Wharf to make my paper gaskets I use this oil resistant gasket paper that you can buy online and this roll is point eight of a millimeter thick which is perfect for base gaskets first thing I do is unroll and cut off a length suitable for the gasket to be made I use my Swiss Army knife with a scissor attachment I'll find it perfect for cutting out gaskets then turn the barrel upside down so the liners are protruding and place the gasket paper on top pressing down firmly with my thumb and my fingers to outline the barrel liners it's important that the gasket paper doesn't move at this stage or it will give a false impression when I'm happy that I've made an imprint of the six liners I turn it over to check and I can see six rounds marks these will now be cut out using my Swiss Army knife scissors and there we go six holes so now I check they fit on the barrels there'll be a nice tight fit you can cutthroat you to the line now using my thumb and fingers I press down hard following the periphery of the barrel so the edge makes a sharp impression onto the gasket paper also pressing down tightly over the holes with my thumbs and fingers to make an indent that can be cut out later and here is the impression to be cut before I cut out the gasket I'll use my hole punch to punch the holes where the studs are going to pass through with the holes punch I just thought I'd try it onto the engine because there's a lot of studs and it slips on lovely I'm well pleased with that the last job to do is to cut out the shape with my Swiss Army knife this can take quite a while but it makes a lovely result when it's finished with the gasket cut out it's now time to try it onto the cylinder block so I'm really pleased when it fits straight on like a glove with the head gasket and base gaskets complete the last thing I have to do is order the seal that fits in the groove by the cam tunnel I hope you enjoy my videos on what I get up to in my garage and if you'd like to see more don't forget to subscribe I'll be uploading two new videos very soon

Channel: Allen Millyard

Views: 580,002

Keywords: Kawasaki Z1, Allen Millyard, Copper gaskets, Copper cylinderhead gasket, How to make a copper gasket, motorcycle gaskets, engines, Honda xl, Honda ss50, made at home, home made, shed made, in the shed, how its made, hand tools, hacksaw, home workshop

Id: ZZvDnOMf8C0

Length: 19min 3sec (1143 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 25 2020