The main reason I know to run a copper head gasket is it won't blow out.  Since it is a slightly softer metal you can crank it down and expect it to fill in the imperfections between the head and block by itself.  Throw some sealer on there like Rhinoman said and your perfect for your one off special down at the dirt track.   So when you have that 14:1 compression or something insane you don't have to worry about your head gasket blowing up. 

No chemical reaction between the aluminum and the copper? Maybe it's encapsulated. As far as filling in imperfections, sounds like if you were changing your head gasket and didn't want to run it to the shop for a resurfacing this might be the answer.

-Adam

Well, I haven't heard of anyone doing this in a long time.  It's one of those "We used to do this on the race car" sort of things.  That was the one using parts from 4 different GM blocks and home made 2" headers into a 4" collector made out of an old drive line from a truck...  Some people did things differently back in the day.  Probably why Dad was cool with chopping chunks of my front fenders off on a whim...

There is a company that makes graphite composite gaskets for engines that help get rid of some of the imperfections from warping over time.  I heard about them for exhaust gaskets for old Internationals.  If you want a fancy head gasket they might have one available.  Would have to look through the magazines to find the place to order them though.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/2004/eb80440.htm has some fun information on modern gasket technology.

I checked my stash and I have just enough for the carb + shipping so I ordered mine today.

I asked some more questions first (of course). Robert assured me that I would have no problems with cold weather starts with the manual choke. The only thing I might need is a new thermostat if mine is bad. Everything else is included. 

He said that they were getting more power out of a stock 1.3 with this carb than a stock 1.6 8 valve fuel injected. That's with the stock exhaust.  I guess I'll see.  He also said  there are people taking off the fuel injection and putting this on for more power. I was thinking of doing fuel injection but the cost + the time to hook it all up, I just couldn't see it. This will fit my schedule better.

$649.00 including shipping but I will have to send an extra $75 for core and I'll get that back when I send my stock intake back (at my expense). A little pricey but since I get an extra 20 to 30 hours a week overtime, I think I deserve to splurge. I had an intake  to send but when I went to take the water neck off, I noticed someone had stuck a skinny bolt thru one of the ears on the manifold and backed it with a small nut. Then jammed a bunch of permatex copper around it so it was hard to  see just what they did. Oh well.

I'll wait in eager anticipation 

-Adam

I would send him both manifolds, maybe he will give you something for the bad one.

I'll ask him first since it ads to shipping. I think you can drill it out and tap it but I'm not sure how well it will hold since the top 1/2 of the ear is broke off.

-Adam

This whole thread makes me wish I'd have kept that box of stock Harley CV carbs. Must have had a dozen of them. Most guys with carbed Harleys swapped them for 42 or 44mm Mikuni flatslides, and the stockers were relegated to scrap status. If a Sammy runs that well with a stock cv, I can only imagine how well it would work with a Mikuni flatslide. HUGE difference in performance, throttle response and tunability with the Mikuni. The CV carb is more suitable for rigs that see a lot of elevation changes of more than a few thousand feet at a time though, as the vacume operated slide is more able to compensate for the changes in air pressure. For pure performance though, the flatslide is the way to go. I wonder if someone has tried it yet?

This whole thread makes me wish I'd have kept that box of stock Harley CV carbs. Must have had a dozen of them. Most guys with carbed Harleys swapped them for 42 or 44mm Mikuni flatslides, and the stockers were relegated to scrap status. If a Sammy runs that well with a stock cv, I can only imagine how well it would work with a Mikuni flatslide. HUGE difference in performance, throttle response and tunability with the Mikuni. The CV carb is more suitable for rigs that see a lot of elevation changes of more than a few thousand feet at a time though, as the vacume operated slide is more able to compensate for the changes in air pressure. For pure performance though, the flatslide is the way to go. I wonder if someone has tried it yet?

I looked at the Mikunis too. I just wanted to keep it more simple. 2 or 4 carb setups are more than I want to tackle. I was afraid of the amount of fuel they would gobble as well.  This setup boasts 29 to 35 with reasonable driving. I'll have to see about that. If I can stay in the mid 20's I'll be happy. 29+ would be awsome. Ideally I'll get around 30 if I go easy and still have the capability of getting up and going when I need too. + I clean up my engine space some and no tuning headaches like I had with a previous weber. Hopefully it will be everything I think it's going to be. For $649 including shipping, I am expecting it too be.

-Adam

I would send him both manifolds, maybe he will give you something for the bad one.

I think I can fix the old one. Two wrongs do make a right! I'll epoxy a couple of studs into the manifold holes so all you have to do is put a couple of nuts on the top over the water neck. Probably  nylon lock nuts. This way they both match and it looks like it's suppose to be like that. Then it's worth something to somebody. I think I can pull it off.

-Adam

Well, maybe a bit "back from the dead". I've been trolling threw the forum for the last couple hours. I hope to by a sami this week. The engine seems to be a 9.5 out of 10. The TC needs a new "guide" or something to help find the ranges ( basiclly the plate on top ).

Has stock running gear and 33'' tires. I know that's not an idea set-up, but, that's how it sits. Its gutted other than the dash, shifters, 2 seats, and roll bar. No windsheild, no doors, no roof/top. Guy is asking $1000. I offered him $500 yesturday. I'll prob. go $700, he said he wanted at least $800.

Anyway... More on topic, I desided to register early to give you guys this information. Weithe I get the sami or not.

http://www.gotpropane.com/p4.html#Suzuki
Propane injection.

Most people don't know much about it. I maybe am not an expert or anything. I do know this. I work on industal propane powered floor scrubbers made by a company called "tennant". They suck ass !!! They break all the time. Almost nothing on them last more than a year at a time, and they cost around $80K-$100K. BUT !!! I also know this... They run propane. I've torn a ford 1.3L industal apart and it was SPOTLESS. The valves, cylinders, heads, EVERYTHING. Also... While everything from the hydrastatic drive ( which normally hydraulics are super reliable ), to the radiator fan on this things have failed, the old and new propane/fuel system HAVE NOT ONCE EVER had an issue !!! My company ( publix supermarkets ) owns about 7-8 of these junky ass things for cleaning the warehouse floors, and not one of them, in ANY warehouse has had a fueling issue !!! Are warehouses range from a cool 40 degrees in the dead cold winter to 120 degrees in the summer in are "open air" warehouses, to -40 degrees in are frozen foods warehouse. The scrubbers run from outside FL heat to -40 degrees inside the frozen warehouse and NEVER miss a beat, and have NEVER needed adjusted.

I've delt with adding supplemental propane for added octane on turbocharged street cars, but never an entire fuel system, and since we never have to work on them, I don't know "the ins and outs" of the system, but I do know that propane burns SUPER CLEAN, and in my experence, its super reliable.

Also, I'm not sure about the fuel $$$ convertion, but I'd bet the propane is either cheaper or the same as gasoline.

If your really going to spend that kind of cash on a fuel carb. then maybe converting to propane maybe a good option to consider.

I've been told propane is  equal to any from 100octane to 118octane. I know that the turbo/nitrous vipers and srt4s we run it on ( not 100% ) LOVES IT. With nitrous, we've never lost a motor when combining nitrous and propane. One of the stock block vipers runs a 400shot on a stock headed, stock short-block V-10 and its run 9.70 in the 1/4 mile on street tires !!! The other viper is the fastest street car in the country. It was in hot-rod magizine last month ( Nov. or Oct. ). Running 8.0|removethispart|@170 mph on street tires and 93octane, but sorry, no propane.

I hope to be a sami owner, but if not, hope this information helps to give you guys another option.

PS: I hate carbs, which is why I researched what I thought would be the most reiable carb set-up.

Welcome aboard.

Believe me, I researched carbs too. I also looked into fuel injection. My understanding is that some people have pulled their fuel injection for this setup. I didn't want to go fuel injection because of all the labor it seemed like it would take to install it. I'm short on time. I haven't been doing  4 wheelin enough to go upside down or any other position that I would need constant fuel. Couldn't afford the repairs either. Right now I mostly work. This setup should install in an afternoon. That's why I wanted to give this setup a try. 

I've heard f.i. as well as propane will keep your engine running at any angle. It sounds like this carb will too. . I actually saw a sidekick with the propane conversion go for around 2500.00 on ebay and I couldn't figure out why the guy didn't want more and why it didn't get snapped up sooner at the buy it now price. My other reservation about propane is that since this is my daily driver and I've been known to take a few 10 hour trips, I would hate to be out on the road looking for propane and I think I would have to store the tanks inside where my back seat is. Otherwise, it's a neat idea for crawling or just putting around town.

As far as my carb, it's supposed to ship from petroworks at the end of this coming week as soon as Gary gets done evacuating people from the wildfires or whatever it is he's doing. No big deal since I haven't had time to install it anyways.

 I'll post when I'm done and let everyone know how it went. Maybe even throw in some pictures too. 

Sorry this is a little disjointed. 5:30 and I can hardly stay awake.

-Adam

Ole yea, I forgot to meantion, since the kit uses "forklift style" propane tanks, my fuel would cost.... $0 per pound. I could just fill it at work.

The idea I had was to carry two forklift tanks, but the website says that their yoda crawler runs all day on 7-8LBS. of propane ( about $10 in FL in think ), and I think the forkleft style tanks hold a lot more than that ( I think charcoal grill tanks hold 10LBS ).

The avalibilty of propane is the biggest down side. Not like your going to roll into a gas station in BFE and be like " I need 30lbs. of propane and a 12 pack of bud light".

The sami I'm checking into would be about 91% trail use, so not like it would be a weekly adventure to find propane.

I was also hoping you'd update us, I figured you'd have the carb by now.

I drove my wife by the sami I'm looking at today ( didn't wanna stop and seem over interested ), and she actully like it ( from 40 yards away ). Then I went and checked the other sami I wanted to buy ( for like $400 ), it was gone. It was just a sami with yoda axles, no driveline or wiring, but I could have used the windsheild, doors, and cab, plus I would have liked to have "bolt-on" yoda axle conversion. But... Snooze, and lose.

Here is the my-side kit I got from myron over at zuksoffroad.com





I picked up  a couple of larger jets to bump the fuel up a little bit and then should be good to go.

He is also making a punch thru my-side2 kit.

I want to make a closed intake system instead of the open filter but other then that I am very happy with it.

Nice set-up. What's your fuel mileage and with what size tires? How much was the this kit?

-Adam

Nice set-up. What's your fuel mileage and with what size tires? How much was the this kit?

-Adam

The kit is around 250.00 and you supply the carb. Its a 40mm klien cv.

Click on the link its on there.

I need to get a new speedo cable before I can tell milleage. They say expect 25 to 30 mpg. I am in the process of rejeting the carb. Picked up the jets yesterday.

I am running spring over with 31's  with the 4.10 tcase gears.

Theres also a my-side topic on zukikrawlers.com in the samurai engine section.