Victor Gaskets take a hour of razor blade scraping to get off, I've only had them on 500hp engines a long time ago. I hear they're the only game in town right now.
1016s were my normal choice into the 800hp range, but turn black in the center and now have some kind of water disentigration problem. If your 1016s are 4-10 years old they're probably fine.
Dave Johnson was the first person I've seen run Copper on pontiacs and I used them shortly after. He had straight copper with blue silicone used that, had some small water leaks. Changed to Ultra Black silicone No Leaks, but makes a mess and my fingers were black for two days. That's good to 1000hp on smaller bores. O-rings above 1000hp. Bad thing about copper, just like victors takes 2 hours to clean good thing they are re-usable.
Tom, what's the biggest bore pontiac using compression rings you know of?
I have not seen anything work really well on the big bore engines, have a couple more tricks to try with stuff that's out there and will look at Jim's gasket before spending another $3500.00 and not knowing if that will hold.
Butler's gaskets may do well, I've never used them. Heard good compliments from Ken Keefer about them, he even suggested I try Jim's before spending the startup cash at Cometic, but I was already in the talks. Don't know anyone who has used the big bore Jim Butler Gaskets. As far as I know it is a steel shim on one side and composite stuff on the other, may be good. Maybe Goatman can share his experiences with them.
The cometic gasket has been used on NASCAR, NHRA and IHRA prostock engines and several High NOS engines. The gasket is Better than Victor and Felpro and if you use them twice, same price.
Several new advantages for different displacements, the SS 350, 389, and 400 guys probably benefit the most.
-Rob
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