Wen Mac Mk II head gasket material

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Wen Mac Mk II head gasket material

Postby pchall » Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:32 pm

I am refurbishing a Wen Mac Mk II and would like to replace the head gasket inside the aluminum muff/glow plug head.

Does anybody posting here know what the original head gasket looks like? I would like to know the original material and OD, ID and thickness.

The seal currently in the engine appears to be 1/2" OD, 3/8" ID and 1/16" thick. It seems to be a fiber ring made of some black material, perhaps an asbestos and graphite gasket product? I can tell that the engine has been taken apart previously from slight tool marks on the muff and cylinder, so this may not be the original gasket.

I need to know if this is the correct head gasket seal since the thickness of the gasket also determines the compression ratio of the engine.

Right now the engine is thoroughly cleaned, has a good piston/cylinder fit and shows signs of being capable of good compression. When I put a short plug in the head and screw the muff on the engine does have compression but it is on the soft side when flipping compare to a Babe Bee or even a Cub B.

Any help with this problem and other comments on running a Wen Mac Mk II will be greatly appreaciated.
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Postby gossie » Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:04 am

With a slightly thicker gasket, if you feel it's a bit low on compression, you can always run lots of nitro to make it really go. 50% nitro, 25% castor, 25% methanol-----or even a bit more nitro if you feel inclined.
Otherwise make a gasket from a thinner material.

You can often pick up suitable gasket type material from your local motor mechanic, by scrounging through the trash bin from old blown head gaskets he's tossed out from the cars he's fixed up.
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Wen Mac Mk II head gasket material

Postby Ken McClenahan » Thu Jun 12, 2008 7:54 pm

50 years ago the standard head gasket material was self-adhesive asbestos composition in accordance with MIL spec A 7021C. It was about 18 thousanths thick uncompressed and (surprise) 10 thousanths thick when compressed.

Suitable modern gasket materials are available but lots of luck finding any in the tiny quantity you need.

Atwood made the Wen Mac engines and my Wen Mac 0.049 looks like the head is interchangable with my Atwood Cadet 0.051 although I am not going to take the head off of the Wen Mac to find out. I suggest that you buy an Atwood head gasket from MECOA.
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Postby walt » Sun Jun 15, 2008 8:55 pm

Burnis Ray BurnisR@aol.com had head gaskets for the Atwood wasps. Didn't see any listed for WenMacs, but he might know if they'll fit.
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Postby Frank Klenk » Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:41 pm

Pchall

Contact Bill Schmidt, he makes die cut gskts for Atwood, Wasp and Wen Mac 049's. He's on the MECA site under services ...
http://www.modelenginecollectors.org/

Frank :)
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