Gasket Goo (non VW)

[Michael4]

In olden days when we mended engines on our kitchen tables we used to use some sort of gasket goo on our cylinder head gaskets just to help things a bit. I know were weren't supposed to but with heads etc likely to be a bit deformed it helped or at least we think it might have done. There were even times when we stuck the thing together with Araldite, it worked but let's not go there.

So...fifty years later, what would be the best sealant to use?

[silverbullet]

Composite gasket, laminated or shim?
Sealing coolant, oil, combustion gases?
Iron block + iron head, iron block + alloy head or all-alloy engine?
There is no single solution.

[Michael4]

Alloy head, iron block, current leak is between combustion and coolant, replacement gasket will look like this which I guess is composite? This is for a Fiat 600D. Some suppliers offer a more expensive 're-enforced' gasket, not quite sure what this is for but guess it is about squeezing more out of the 767cc rather than sorting a leak.