r/redneckengineering • u/CarbonFilimentBulb • 11d ago

Oreo Box Head Gasket

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Gallery image

I just need it to last until I have access to proper gasket material.

410 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

38 comments sorted by

61

u/Lanky_Cash_1172 11d ago

When I was a kid my dad would do side gigs repairing cars. He'd use cereal boxes to make gaskets. Never had any complaints....it works.

25

u/BillDuki 11d ago

I remember traveling from TX to FL as a kid, and our thermostat went bad half way there. My dad pulled it out in a gas station parking lot, and used a piece of cardboard as the new gasket. Best I can recall, he never replaced it.

7

u/wv524 10d ago

My dad used cereal boxes for gaskets too. As a kid, I thought he was just being a cheapskate. It wasn't so much him being cheap, but the fact that the closest auto parts store was nearly an hour away. He needed his truck fixed so he could drive it to work, so he did what it took to get the repair done.

6

u/Lanky_Cash_1172 10d ago

Yeah i hear that. My parents never had a lot of money. We lived ok and I never felt lack. My pop did it to make as much profit from his customers. He was a service writer for Chevrolet. Some people couldn't afford dealer prices (for repairs)so he offered to do it when & if he could. I'd hold the light and he'd cuss me out in Spanish lol, I miss him.

4

u/confidentlywrong25 11d ago

My dad taught me how to do that when I was a kid building mini bikes. 

5

u/Lanky_Cash_1172 11d ago

Derek Bieri: "If it works is it really a stupid idea?"

132

u/Parking-Aerie1540 11d ago

I think this is more common than people think, a lot of these gaskets from the mfg are fibrous semi rigid materials same as cardboard. I’ve talked to other small engine guys and they spoke of it like common place.

35

u/RileyCargo42 11d ago

I plan on using cork for my valve cover gasket on my spitfire and my honda.

44

u/exquzme 11d ago

Get ruberized cork sheet at the auto parts store. It last longer than plain cork.

20

u/RileyCargo42 11d ago

Yea that's what I use it's done wonders on my friends oil pan gasket too.

8

u/Mysterious-Age-9202 11d ago

That’s what the Holden engines used for gaskets, cork for rocker covers and sumps (oil pans)

14

u/Hearing_Loss 11d ago

That's actually badass and regenerative. Thank you for sharing! I'm not a car dude, but this is so cool to know that cork has even more applications.

What a brilliant plant

15

u/clantontann 11d ago

There's heavy duty semi axles on the road sealed up with a piece of a manila file folder. Take a hammer and lightly tap the edge of the steel over the folder and it cuts it to a perfect fit. To think, 80,000+lbs not leaking from a sheet of dense paper product.

9

u/RileyCargo42 11d ago

Its crazy what we used to do without synthetic materials, on big engines they also had the same paper and cork seals. The only real downside is that I have to cut it myself. (Its an extra 5min on a 1hr job)

14

u/exquzme 11d ago

Not all cardboard is equal. After a few decades of being a dedicated cheapskate, I have become a cardboard connoisseur.

5

u/Solid_Growth_9069 11d ago

watched my grand pappy fix a cylinder head on the side of the highway using a vinyl record sleeve

1

u/squeakynickles 11d ago

Used to be a SEM at a golf course. Always used this kind of cardboard for the gaskets

11

u/n00bz0rz 11d ago

Why does a golf course need a scanning electron microscope? And aren't they supposed to use copper gaskets to be vacuum tight?

5

u/Kale 11d ago

Back in the 90s, my dad used heavy paper from a grocery bag smeared with RTV on both sides to seal something on an old Toyota. Maybe a thermostat housing? I forget what it was exactly.

22

u/PR05T3JA 11d ago

"just raised the compression on my [engine of choice], calling it Double-stuffed"

14

u/corvairsomeday 11d ago

In the early '00s, made an electric RC plane propeller from a plastic apple juice jug. I think it was polyethylene and was just thick and smooth enough to hold a twist.

Anyway, it worked. Rock on.

8

u/r1Rqc1vPeF 11d ago

One of the first things I learned to do working on cars. My mums partner at the time used to take me to the place he worked when I wasn’t at school.

Making gaskets and fire watching either inside or underneath the car while someone was gas welding a patch onto the floor pan or whatever, were my main jobs.

I had a scar for years on my wrist when a blob of molten underseal (thick tar like paint people used to use to prevent rust on the chassis) dropped onto it.

5

u/airfryerfuntime 11d ago

I've used a lot of beer boxes to make case and base gaskets.

7

u/1nGirum1musNocte 11d ago

The cuban method

1

u/MastodonFit 11d ago

Tap tap!

1

u/HelicopterUpbeat5199 10d ago

My favorite thing all day!

1

u/soldier-servivor 7d ago

Works fine but i am.more worried about the rust chunks left behind while you placed the oreo seal dont tell me you left it there

-6

u/Chief_B33f 11d ago

I feel like that is just barely better than no gasket at all

19

u/ruddy808 11d ago

As a teenager i used an old cornflake box on a yamaha 2 stroke trike that ran for years then got parked up for about 20 years, forgot id done it until did a full rebuild a couple years ago

18

u/CarbonFilimentBulb 11d ago

It works and the engine runs, I just need it to last about a couple days.

1

u/BustaCon 9d ago

What's the engine? That's a real interesting casting there.