Head gaskets

[Wrench]

Are we supposed to anneal the aluminum head gaskets too? Surely not.

If ya want to reuse the aluminum gasket it can be annealed to make it soft again. But be careful it's easy to burn it.
the method to anneal an aluminum gasket is to put black sharpie mark's all over it. As your heating the aluminum to anneal it when the black sharpie marks disappear the aluminum is hot enough and is annealed. Stop or you'll burn the aluminum

 

[Wrench]

Hobby lobby has copper sheets from .010" to .060" thick, a 12"x 18" .060" copper sheet at hobby lobby was $25 last time a bought one.

Yeh Copper isn't cheap

 

[Karl Snarl]

If ya want to reuse the aluminum gasket it can be annealed to make it soft again. But be careful it's easy to burn it.
the method to anneal an aluminum gasket is to put black sharpie mark's all over it. As your heating the aluminum to anneal it when the black sharpie marks disappear the aluminum is hot enough and is annealed. Stop or you'll burn the aluminum

I use an old toaster oven, lol. Thing always burnt everything and I finally took it to the shop to use for parts and stuff. I just hang it from the little anti smash bar right in the middle and hit it on both elements. When the marker starts fading I shut it off. Not usually resing gaskets, but same principal working it and it starts to get hard from the work ( hammer hits)

The thing that makes it so hard to do, aluminum gets soft, right before it melts. lol. It's not like copper that has a few transitions before it melts, aluminum, just melts for the most part. lol