MTFCA Forum

I've been reading a lot of 1930s factory-issued service material from Packard. During the mid 1930s, Packard used aluminum cylinder heads on a lot of cars. In at least one bulletin, they advised against using copper-clad head gaskets with aluminum heads, citing corrosion issues. They recommended and supplied a Terneplated steel-clad gasket.

Terneplate: Sheet iron or sheet steel, plated (probably hot-dipped) with an alloy consisting of 75% lead and 25% tin. The composition of the alloy could vary somewhat.

In the case of the Packard gaskets, they probably used Terneplated annealed sheet steel over asbestos, with the steel being either hot dip Galavanized or heavily electroplated.

Ford used Terneplate steel for the Model A gas tanks and probably used it for head gaskets.

Copper-clad head gaskets probably would not cause problems with modern anti-freeze.

Aluminum heads caused a lot of problems in the 1930s, and Ford and Packard went back to cast iron heads. Non-sealed, atmospheric cooling systems and the plain water and various coolant solutions then in use offered little or no protection against corrosion with aluminum heads. About all they had to retard corrosion was soluble oil and whatever oil and grease the water pumps leaked into the coolant. The water pumps then in use were prone to leak, and often leaked air into the coolant at higher engine speeds, which aggravated corrosion.

Slight combustion gas leaks into the engine coolant were common, and even the slightest combustion gas leak would greatly aggravate corrosion in the cooling system.

The advent of products like Zerex and Prestone helped control corrosion. I believe they both consisted of glycol and some soluble oil, with perhaps some chemical buffers.

I use the original type cast iron head. I also like best the copper head gaskets. Only problem I have had with mine was that on one bolt I lost the threads in the block and bored it out and placed an helicoil I didn't want to drill into the water jacket and consequently did not drill quite deeply enough. When I tightened the head and torqued it, that bolt was not quite down enough on the head and bottomed out. The torque wrench red 50 ft lbs but it was measuring the torque against the block instead of the head. That bolt was near the rear corner behind the manifold, so I didn't notice the leak. eventually the edge of the gasket blew out right next to the steam vent. I had the head resurfaced but unfortunately that only made the problem worse. Finally I found the cause and put a washer under the head of the bolt. So far no leak nor blowout. It can be parked a month and when I check the level it is still right up there.
We have hard water here so I use distilled water in the cooling system with half prestone green anti-freeze all year around even though it rarely drops below freezing here.
Norm

Norman, There have also been a couple batches of head bolts made over the last four decades that are a couple turns too long, so the fault MAY not be 100% yours …