The gaskets for the earlier air-cooled vanagons were solid copper for the oval-port heads; totally different design and won't work for the WBX.
  Nowadays, many American car high performance vehicles use 'dead-soft' solid aluminum header gaskets.
   No-one is making anything specifically for WBX's, but I wonder if any others might fit?

Mike B.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Rodgers 
  To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM 
  Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 1:15 PM
  Subject: Re: exhaust gaskets

  BTW - in the bad ol' days when asbestos was king in hot applications -
  the older type fiber/metal gaskets were made with asbestos as the fiber
  ingredient - and they never burned out. Not so today.

  Wish I had something to offer as an equal substitute but without the
  cancerous effects of the asbestos.

  John Rodgers
  88 GL Driver

  John Rodgers wrote:
  > I would suspect there are flex issues associated with the fiber/metal
  > gasket vs the straight metal ones. A strict metal seal would essentially
  > make for a rigid joit - and that would increase the chances of failure
  > of the parts. The fiber/metal would give soem flexibility yet still
  > retain the exhaust gases.
  >
  > Just my $0.02.
  >
  > John Rodgers
  > 88 GL Driver
  >
  > William Greenamyer wrote:
  >> I have a question.  I know the need for the gaskets on the exhaust
  >> system
  >> since it makes the seal to prevent air leaks and noise.  On my 84
  >> Vanagon,
  >> the gasket is fiber that is sandwiched between two sheets of metal to
  >> keep
  >> from blowing out the fiber material.  Problem is that the fiber
  >> eventually
  >> disintegrates anyway and compression on the metal pieces is reduced.
  >> There
  >> are solid metal gaskets which I guess were used on earlier VW's.  I was
  >> wondering why the solid metal gaskets are not used on the Vanagon so
  >> that
  >> the fiber sandwiched gaskets don't have to be replaced?
  >>
  >> William
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >
  >