Well here is the head and gasket that was only done less then a year ago. Notice the black coating on the gasket was never activated, I only wiped the head with a rag. There was no black coating stuck on the block either. Most likely the reason the job only lasted about 6 months.

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2006 LTD Bright Silver loaded with all the needed mods, CCV intact.
Proudly supporting CRD vendors, and their development of quality parts and accessories.
Equipped with HDS thermostat, plenty of heat, faster warm-ups, increased fuel mileage.

What do you mean by "activated?" AFAIK the coating is just viton, and very thin at that. It might soften a bit with temperature and pressure and seal, but it shouldn't need to activate.

Is it possible that the problem is something else? One thing that I noticed was that with something sprayed on, it seemed wise to wait awhile between torque rounds to allow the goo to settle in and squeeze out. I waited several hours between my rounds, and overnight before the last one. If you did not do that, tightened down on a viscous coating and the coating then shifted, I could see how the torque might have gone wrong, for example.

I've spoken to a couple of machine shops now that have done either Permatex copper or Hylomar on head gaskets now even for their own engines, and report better success with it than without.

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George Reiswig
2005 Jeep Liberty CRD
Suncoast, SEGR, lift, InMotion tune, homebrew B100
At 138k, new head & gasket, timing belt, rockers and swearing vocabulary

'copper coating' is well, copper colored.
isn't the black 'coating' carbon (exhaust gas) from a totally raised head? Just how thick did you spray this on? Was it hard or tacky when you got the head torqued down?
Old trick from many many moons ago, we'd spray paint aluminum paint (when it still contained aluminum flake) and had really good luck with the steel shim gaskets, Nowadays this copper stuff is even better.. In any case, we'd bust hump to get the head torqued before it got hard.

New or used bolts, or studs on the rebuild?

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2006 KJ CRD, bought 9/11/14, 70,500 miles. Circulating Rotella T6 5w-40
11-3-14 oem stat installed
11-5-14 gen II FH installed.
Sasquatch elbow kit, samcos, GDE eco FT. 11-26-14
80,500 miles, engine is disassembled, awaiting parts 3/18
Budget?? Sure! 'Everything I have'.
New "Pet" name for My Jeep; 'Soul Sucker'

1 The copper coat does not harden.
2 The black coating was stuck to the head and block when I did the first job and needed to be scraped, and was very obvious where it peeled off the original gasket.
3 How can any thing shift when you have the alignment sleeves?
4 I used the bolts that came with the replacement gasket last time.

Any ways the original head was overheated a few times by the wife, so I opted for a VM Specialist head this time around and ARP studs. Maybe I will give is another shot with the torque wrench before I put the lifters and intake back on.

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2006 LTD Bright Silver loaded with all the needed mods, CCV intact.
Proudly supporting CRD vendors, and their development of quality parts and accessories.
Equipped with HDS thermostat, plenty of heat, faster warm-ups, increased fuel mileage.

I just finished a head gasket on my CRD .
I used a yellow 3m Roloc disc on an angled die grinder to clean the head and the block . And man did it clean it .

From what I understand from many head gaskets I've done on VW TDI's is the metal head gaskets need smooth clean surfaces to get a good seal when torquing the head bolts / studs .
Even using emery 3m discs or sanding discs is discouraged as it takes material off when cleaning , where the Rolex doesn't .

I would never attempt to use any kind a "Sealer" on a head gasket .

I use Copper coat all the time on valve covers and many other things and it works good ..

M

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Mike__________________
Black 2006 KJ 2.8L CRD Sport
E-Tecno GX3123 7v Glow Plugs/Rockers/Lifters/Head Gasket/TB @ 277KM - Oct 2014
Transgo 45RFE-HD2 / Tranny Filters / Fresh Fluid - 284KM - Jan 2015