maperformance
15+ Year Contributor
- 290
- 3
- Jan 11, 2007
-
Cottage Grove,
Minnesota
What is the ICS Titan?
The ICS Titan is a Copper Head Gasket made by a well known gasket maker SCE.
Many 4G63's have tried to run Copper SCE Titan or SCE Pro Copper Head gaskets with O-Ringed motors and the initial buzz about copper head gaskets was kind of shot down. These gaskets leaked, didn't hold power even with O-Rings and in general were considered a bad solution.
The Titan part of the gasket name means that it comes pre-made with sealant around the oil and coolant passages.
The ICS Titan is different in that it comes with a piece of Stainless wire built in the the combustion seal area of the head gasket. It is partially squished out of the copper when the head is torqued, in theory making in an "O-Ringed" motor without having to machine the head or block with grooves to hold an actual O-Ring. Sounds great!
Another "advantage" of the Copper head gasket is it transfers heat better between the head and the block. This can be a advantage causing more stable temps, but I think the difference with this is small.
I called SCE and talked to one of their tech support guys for a little while, and he said that the gasket should work awesome for our application (40PSI and over 700whp). I am taking this all with a grain of salt as it is HIS product he is talking about.
We decided to order one up. It sat on our shelf for about a month and then one night during dyno testing we blew out/lifted the head with a Cometic Gasket. We called it a night.
One night during the week we decided to pull the head off and try the SCE ICS. Head was pulled off, cleaned, same with block, and we put some new 6bolt ARP's in there for good measure, like we always do on our race motors.
With both surfaces cleaned, we cleaned off the SCE and slapped it on. We did not use any copper spray or any other sprays before putting it on, per SCE instructions. We torqued the head to 95ft lbs and started the car. It started right up.
Let me stress something that was stressed when I talked to the SCE rep.
He said to let it get up to operating temperature without putting ANY load on the motor, and then to shut it down and let it cool COMPLETELY off. We did this, as that is what we were told to do. After the motor had completely cooled we backed off each head stud individually to where there was no stress on the gasket and then retorqued it. We did this to each and every head stud individually, which is what SCE recommends. After this, we threw the car on the dyno and made 709whp. Then we took it to a local AWD Dyno and made over 540 with some minor problems (clutch slip, spark blowout).
Since then, the car has done probably 2500 miles on 600whp with E85 (28PSI) and raced and beat many cars. We then threw C16 in it and took it to the track, ran 10.19@146 with unknown boost, and it took all this like it was nothing. Head gasket has probably 3000 miles on it now, always making over 550whp and never being babied.
I think a lot of people are mis-installing the gasket and not doing it per the instructions. This is our first one, and we have no issues with it.
CN: If installed properly, the SCE Titan is a good competitor to the Cometic Gaskets.
The ICS Titan is a Copper Head Gasket made by a well known gasket maker SCE.
Many 4G63's have tried to run Copper SCE Titan or SCE Pro Copper Head gaskets with O-Ringed motors and the initial buzz about copper head gaskets was kind of shot down. These gaskets leaked, didn't hold power even with O-Rings and in general were considered a bad solution.
The Titan part of the gasket name means that it comes pre-made with sealant around the oil and coolant passages.
The ICS Titan is different in that it comes with a piece of Stainless wire built in the the combustion seal area of the head gasket. It is partially squished out of the copper when the head is torqued, in theory making in an "O-Ringed" motor without having to machine the head or block with grooves to hold an actual O-Ring. Sounds great!
Another "advantage" of the Copper head gasket is it transfers heat better between the head and the block. This can be a advantage causing more stable temps, but I think the difference with this is small.
I called SCE and talked to one of their tech support guys for a little while, and he said that the gasket should work awesome for our application (40PSI and over 700whp). I am taking this all with a grain of salt as it is HIS product he is talking about.
We decided to order one up. It sat on our shelf for about a month and then one night during dyno testing we blew out/lifted the head with a Cometic Gasket. We called it a night.
One night during the week we decided to pull the head off and try the SCE ICS. Head was pulled off, cleaned, same with block, and we put some new 6bolt ARP's in there for good measure, like we always do on our race motors.
With both surfaces cleaned, we cleaned off the SCE and slapped it on. We did not use any copper spray or any other sprays before putting it on, per SCE instructions. We torqued the head to 95ft lbs and started the car. It started right up.
Let me stress something that was stressed when I talked to the SCE rep.
He said to let it get up to operating temperature without putting ANY load on the motor, and then to shut it down and let it cool COMPLETELY off. We did this, as that is what we were told to do. After the motor had completely cooled we backed off each head stud individually to where there was no stress on the gasket and then retorqued it. We did this to each and every head stud individually, which is what SCE recommends. After this, we threw the car on the dyno and made 709whp. Then we took it to a local AWD Dyno and made over 540 with some minor problems (clutch slip, spark blowout).
Since then, the car has done probably 2500 miles on 600whp with E85 (28PSI) and raced and beat many cars. We then threw C16 in it and took it to the track, ran 10.19@146 with unknown boost, and it took all this like it was nothing. Head gasket has probably 3000 miles on it now, always making over 550whp and never being babied.
I think a lot of people are mis-installing the gasket and not doing it per the instructions. This is our first one, and we have no issues with it.
CN: If installed properly, the SCE Titan is a good competitor to the Cometic Gaskets.
