This is the aluminium head gasket of the type fitted to OHV engines (Model 18 and ES2) between 1948 - 1955 (although it is possible that some engines of this design continued to be sold through into 1956).

In the accompanying photograph you can see it fitted to an ES2 barrel of this type. These are manufactured for us by a well established UK gasket manufacturer. We have these head gaskets made to our own specification and are a very nice slide fit over the lip of this model of barrel (unlike some other head gaskets I have seen for this model over the years).

Fitment and Background Information:  

The Norton Spare Parts List of 1948 first shows this head gasket fitted, and at that time both the barrel and cylinder head would have been cast iron.  Sometime in the early 1950's an alloy cylinder head of the same shape and design was also offered - being substantially lighter than the iron version (these later alloy versions are now considered a rare and desirable head, difficult to find at autojumbles, possibly because they were sought for racing bikes and 500T replicas).  This alloy head (with open pushrod tube cutaways as per the photos continued to approximately 1956/57 - when it was replaced with a head with the pushrod enclosure cast into the head.  The head gasket shown here fits all 500cc OHV models between 1948 - 55. 

If you have a head with the post 1955 cast in pushrod design - we also provide the alloy head gasket for that type - but it is marginally different to this type and is Item 0920. 

If you are not sure which barrel is fitted to your model (and which gasket you need) - look carefully at the item photographs: the barrel shape of this barrel (48 - 55 type) has slightly less finning than the 56 - 59 type shown in Item 0920, this being particularly noticeable in the fin area between the two pushrod tubes - compared side by side, the 48-55 barrel fin there does not protrude as far.

If you are unsure, email us at sales@racingvincent.co.uk and we can confirm dimensions to ensure you order the correct gasket. Likewise, if you have a Model 19 600 Barrel these may also fit that model, but please email to confirm. 

1938 - 47 Engines and Earlier OHV Engines:  

Although the earlier OHV barrel and head design were similar to the 1948 OHV design - i.e. they employed both an inner barrel spigot, and an outer flat mating surface - the 1939 Spare Parts List for this model does not show a head gasket listed.  I have also built and raced many of the 38-47 type engines in past years, and never used a head gasket on any of them.  However, if not using a head gasket (which acts almost entirely on the outer mating face), it is important to ensure that you have a good fit on the inner spigot, as a 'Top Hat' principle is adopted - i.e. the head bolts pull down on the head around the wide mating face, which ideally should cause the inner barrel spigot to touch the inner recess of the cylinder head fully, just before the two mating outer faces touch.  When racing these engines on methanol with high compression ratios - I always used to use valve grinding paste on both faces - and rigorously ground the head from side to side on a barrel for about 5 - 10 minutes.  Finally I would use fine grinding paste on the inner spigot face, and rough grinding paste on the outer face - looking for an even 'greyness' to the mating surfaces all the way round.

Useful Hint when fitting cylinder heads - either with or without an alloy head gasket:  It is important when fitting the head gasket to these OHV models to ensure a good quality spanner or socket is used on the head bolts and the bolts are tightened down in an even 'X' sequence.  I have never used a torque wrench (either on OHV or SOHC heads), but continue to evenly tighten down until I am unable to apply any more pressure - this normally being with a 12" ring spanner or socket. 

However, it is most important to go round the cylinder head bolts again, once the engine has been ran for a short time and is warm.  I used to find this particularly true of those OHV models with aluminium cylinder heads fitted with an aluminium head gasket as listed here.  This can sometimes be fiddly - and may even entail having to remove the petrol tank to get full access to the head bolts.  This normally pays dividends, and I have found I could sometimes get another 1/4 turn of each head bolt when warm.  I also found failing to do this could sometimes result in premature failure of the alloy head gasket - particularly the area between pushrod tubes - which seemed the area most susceptible to 'blowing' the head gasket out.

If you own a Post-1948 norton model - i.e. with the oil drain sump plug in bottom of the crankcase - then it will either have been fitted with 1/8" BSP sump plug (see also our Sump Plug listing - Item 1101 for more information on different sump plugs) - or sometimes a 7/16" threaad plug - If your sump plug has a thread that measures 7/16" OD - then these are the correct fibre washers for that plug. 

This red fibre washer was also used used at the back of the SOHC Cylinder Feed Bolt (i.e. the drive side), normally behind a steel washer (but bolts can be different lengths or crankcases have different bores, sometimes the bolt is not long enough to fit both), to prevent seepage of oil .

Price is for 2 washers

This is the well known gasket fitted to tappet covers on all OHV (i.e. Model 18, ES2, Model 19) between 1948 - 1956.  Manufactured in cork gasket material, as per the original

It is slightly different to the type fitted from 1938 - 47 in that it fitted against a rockerbox casting where the cheesehead screw had gasket material all around it. Earlier engines had a slightly different gasket (Item -0918) - Please check your own rockerbox to ensure yours is similar to the one in our photos.  

These are one of the most common leakage areas on this type of engine (probably because of the engine breathing or the pressed steel cover).  Although a new cork gasket like this mostly alleviates the leakage .. . when I was riding one of these models on the road regularly, I also use to smear a light layer of silicone gasket liquid over the cork gasket as well - which seem to make them more oiltight.  It was also common to find the pressed steel cover had its screw holes indented through overtightening the screws.  Turning the cover over on a flat hard surface and carefully punching the holes back flat with an alloy drift would greatly help the issue.

This gasket is manufactured for us in good quality oil resistent gasket material by a well established UK gasket manufacturer

This gasket set consists of 2 x rubber seals and 2 x fibre washers of the correct type to fit the OHV pushrod tubes of the 1948-55 design Supplied as a set of 4. 

This particular design of OHV engine was extremely popular and was manufactured from 1948 to 1955.  The accompanying photographs show the type of pushrods fitted to this engine - where rubber seals were fitted over the pushrod pushers in the crankcase and inside a recess at the bottom of the pushrod.  These then flattened and pushed out slightly as the head of the engine was tightened down.  At the top of the pushrods were fitted two large fibre washers, which actually would normally remain in-situ on the rockerbox.  This set of 4 allows fitment for both pushrod tubes.

These are manufactured for us by a well established UK gasket manufacturer.

Note: if you have a later 1956 -  1959 OHV model, although the pushrods are shorter, they look similar to these - but actually the gaskets are quite different.  We can also supply a pushrod gasket set for that model - which is Item 0935

These are the fibre washers that fit either side of the rockerbox feed washers on OHV (ES2, Mod 18, Mod 19 and later Mod 50) engines from 1948 to 1959. Price is per pair of washers.

This OHV Rocker Spindle washer set consists of 2 x copper washers and 2 x copper washers, as fitted on all 1948-55 OHV engines.  They may also fit 56-59 Rocker Spindles.

For 1956-59 Engines: The Norton Spare Parts list for 1957 lists the same copper washer as used on the 48-55 type engines (that these washers are intended for) - but has one digit of the part number transposed, which may be a typo mistake.  Unfortunately I no longer have a 56-59 OHV rockerbox in my posession, so cannot double check .. . but if you have this type of engine, email us at sales@racingvincent.co.uk and we will confirm dimensions.

Note:  For this listing item - we supply 4 washers: 2 x copper and 2 x red fibre washers.  In the 48-55 catalog, it is unclear if red fibre washers are fitted behind the copper washers - but I have seen both types of washers listed and fitted for this rocker spindle.  In the past when I was regurly running one of these engines on the road, I found it useful to have a red fibre closest to the rockerbox casting and the thin copper washers outside those, which the domed nut tightened up against - because a red fibre washer on its own always got chewed by the nut, so the copper washers goes on the outside. 

This is the aluminium head gasket of the type fitted to 500cc/600cc OHV engines (500cc ES2 and 600cc Model 19) between 1956 - 1959

In the accompanying photograph you can see it fitted to an ES2 barrel of this later type - and the accompanying picture from the 1957 Norton Spare Partts Catalog shows the OHV Head and Barrel design this head gasket is intended for. These are manufactured for us by a well established UK gasket manufacturer.

Fitment and Background Information:  

This aluminium head gasket is visually almost identical to the earlier 1948-55 type OHV gasket we also sell (Item 0919), but the dimensions are actually slightly different to fit the later barrel design. If you look at the comparison photos of different type barrels, you will notice this engine type is identifiable by the fins being slightly wider than the earlier 48-55 barrel, particularly in the area between the pushrod tubes.  Also the head on this engine type had cast in fins around the pushrod area on the cylinder head, and therefore pushrod tubes that only extended up to the top of the barrel (unlike the earlier design, where the pushrods went all the way up to the rockerbox.  If you are unsure if your barrel/head requires this type of head gasket having looked at the photos - then email us at sales@racingvincent.co.uk and we can confirm dimensions from your engine.

Note: if you have a 350cc Model 50 engine of this same era, the head gasket for that model is also different to this one, but we sell that also - See Item 0921.

Another indicator of these later design engines is that the top of the crankcase at the point the pushrods  come out, are sharper in profile than the earlier engine - see photograph attached of this later type 56-59 engine design.  The reason we provide this detail, is that the period the engine design was changed to this later style is not entirely clear - it is listed as 1956, but I believe some bikes were still being sold with the earlier engine design in 1956 (and many owners swapped engines subsequently), so it is worth checking

Useful Hint when fitting cylinder heads - either with or without an alloy head gasket:  It is important when fitting the head gasket to these OHV models to ensure a good quality spanner or socket is used on the head bolts and the bolts are tightened down in an even 'X' sequence.  I have never used a torque wrench (either on OHV or SOHC heads), but continue to evenly tighten down until I am unable to apply any more pressure - this normally being with a 12" ring spanner or socket. 

However, it is most important to go round the cylinder head bolts again, once the engine has been ran for a short time and is warm.  I used to find this particularly true of those OHV models with aluminium cylinder heads fitted with an aluminium head gasket as listed here.  This can sometimes be fiddly - and may even entail having to remove the petrol tank to get full access to the head bolts.  This normally pays dividends, and I have found I could sometimes get another 1/4 turn of each head bolt when warm.  I also found failing to do this could sometimes result in premature failure of the alloy head gasket - particularly the area between pushrod tubes - which seemed most susceptible to 'blowing' the head gasket out.

This is the gasket fitted between the oil pipe junction block and crankcase on later type OHV and SV models from approximately 1950-59. 

In the accompanying photographs you can see a photo of the type of crankcase that used this oil junction block which was on all OHV/SV models from 1950 to 1959. Prior to 1950, the (similar looking crankcase) had seperate brass union's for seperate input and output oil pipes (which we also sell - Item 0248b) - however, as engines or crankcases were sometimes swapped over, please check your crankcase has this oil pipe block before ordering.  

This gasket is manufactured for us in good quality oil resistent gasket material by a well established UK gasket manufacturer

This is the aluminium head gasket of the type fitted to 350cc OHV engines (Model 50) between 1956 - 1959.

In the accompanying photograph you can see it fitted up to barrel of the 56-59 design type (although actually I no longer have a 350cc barrel of this type in my own collection - and an ES2 barrel is actually shown . . . but the design of fins for the two types are the same). Also included in the accompanying pictures is an exploded diagram from the 1957 Spare Parts Catalog for this style of engine (although again, the picture is of a 500cc ES2 engine is shown - but the 350 Model 50 design was the same - with just the barrel spigot diameter being less on the 350cc model - which these head gaskets are designed for.

These are manufactured for us by a well established UK gasket manufacturer.

Fitment and Background Information:  

This aluminium head gasket is designed for the later 1956-59 Model 50 350cc engine, as shown in the pictures.  This 350cc model was re-introduced in 1956 to supplement the 500cc and 600cc models already being offered post-war.

However, the 350cc Model 50 was actually a resurection of the same popular model that had been offered alongside the 500cc version for many years pre-war.  But for some reason, the 350cc version was not included in the Norton line-up when the Norton OHV engine was redesigned in 1948, Norton's waiting until 1956 to re-introduce this model.

Note: If you have a pre-war 350cc Model 50 - then like the visually similar pre-war 500cc engines - no head gasket was shown as being fitted, and you should not require this item.

From a curiosity perspective - if you do own a pre-war OHV 350cc model (or pre-war 500cc OHV model for that matter) - and have found your engine has been fitted with a head gasket (copper or alloy) - then I would be glad to hear from you!, our email is sales@racingvincent.co.uk. I have only previously had one pre-war 350ccc in my ownership, and as per the pre-war spare parts list - that did not have a head gasket fitted.

Useful Hint when fitting cylinder heads - either with or without an alloy head gasket:  It is important when fitting the head gasket to these OHV models to ensure a good quality spanner or socket is used on the head bolts and the bolts are tightened down in an even 'X' sequence.  I have never used a torque wrench (either on OHV or SOHC heads), but continue to evenly tighten down until I am unable to apply any more pressure - this normally being with a 12" ring spanner or socket. 

However, it is most important to go round the cylinder head bolts again, once the engine has been ran for a short time and is warm.  I used to find this particularly true of those OHV models with aluminium cylinder heads fitted with an aluminium head gasket as listed here.  This can sometimes be fiddly - and may even entail having to remove the petrol tank to get full access to the head bolts.  This normally pays dividends, and I have found I could sometimes get another 1/4 turn of each head bolt when warm.  I also found failing to do this could sometimes result in premature failure of the alloy head gasket - particularly the area between pushrod tubes - which seemed most susceptible to 'blowing' the head gasket out.

This (large) Tappet Adjuster Gasket fits late (56-60) Norton ES2, Model 50, Model 19S OHV pushrod models. It is made from high quality oil resistent thick gasket card material, as per the original

The accompanyning exploded engine diagram shows the type of OHV engine this tappet adjuster gasket fits, it being almost the last design of OHV rockerbox - which had a much wider aluminium tappet cover (with cast in 'N' motif) than the earlier 48-56 style rockerbox. 

This gasket is manufactured for us in good quality oil resistent gasket material by a well established UK gasket manufacturer