Make sure that your head and cylinder mating surfaces are flat. You can
lap the head on a flat plate or glass plate using wet/dry sandpaper,
ditto the cylinder. My old timer friend used to lap the head to the
cylinder of his Indian flathead twin, use aluminum paint, and then go
hill climbing. (Won too!!)

andy wrote:
Hi folks.
I am trying to replace the head gasket on an old marine gasoline
engine. (Palmer PW-27) The old gasket (which i made of unspecified
gasket material I had on hand) has blown out between the combustion
chamber and one of the head bolts after approximately 10 hours of use.

The engine is a one cylinder, 8ish HP, flat head-type, raw water cooled
engine, which I have been told has some internal parts made by
Wisconsin.

I have been unable to locate a factory gasket, and plan on making one.
Any suggestions for a suitable material would be helpful.

One thought I had was to try to incorporate a piece of flattened copper
wire around the perimeter of the combustion chamber with some gasket
material sealing up around the bolt holes and coolant passages. Any one
have any luck with this "hybrid" approach?

Thanks for any and all advice.
Andy Hall
Lynn, MA