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I have used both Copper and composite. Conventional wisdom suggests copper does not blow out, but tends to leak oil. Composite has to be torqued and re-torqued or it may blow out, but is generally more oil tight. Regardless of type: Torque when installed, re-torque after first run, re-torque after 100 or so miles and torque again at 1000 miles. Then maybe every 2000 miles or so thereafter. I have never used sealant other than a bit of Hylomar Blue around the pushrod tubes at the front, for me at least I think it makes too much mess to clean up at a later date. I prefer the composite type on Norton's. If you keep up with the re-torques they seem to seal very well. Copper of course prefer's smoother mating surfaces, not always that easy to achieve with the sometimes rather poor engineering tolerances on some British bikes.In regards to fiddling around with the pushrods to put the head on in the frame. It is a bit of a pain, but gets easier after you have done it several times. One thing that helps is learning how to get the pushrods as far as possible into the head. Then while holding the pushrods in the head, put the head onto the barrels, let the pushrods fall into the guides and roll the head forward into place. As you start to tighten the head bolts be careful to make sure the pushrods have seated correctly. Getting them to mate correctly with the rockers tends to require a fair bit of patience.
I have used both Copper and composite. Conventional wisdom suggests copper does not blow out, but tends to leak oil. Composite has to be torqued and re-torqued or it may blow out, but is generally more oil tight. Regardless of type: Torque when installed, re-torque after first run, re-torque after 100 or so miles and torque again at 1000 miles. Then maybe every 2000 miles or so thereafter. I have never used sealant other than a bit of Hylomar Blue around the pushrod tubes at the front, for me at least I think it makes too much mess to clean up at a later date. I prefer the composite type on Norton's. If you keep up with the re-torques they seem to seal very well. Copper of course prefer's smoother mating surfaces, not always that easy to achieve with the sometimes rather poor engineering tolerances on some British bikes.
In regards to fiddling around with the pushrods to put the head on in the frame. It is a bit of a pain, but gets easier after you have done it several times. One thing that helps is learning how to get the pushrods as far as possible into the head. Then while holding the pushrods in the head, put the head onto the barrels, let the pushrods fall into the guides and roll the head forward into place. As you start to tighten the head bolts be careful to make sure the pushrods have seated correctly. Getting them to mate correctly with the rockers tends to require a fair bit of patience.
