copper is notorious for water sealing problems. SCE has a Titan line 'with built in coolant and oil seals'
http://www.scegaskets.com/Shop/Control/fp/SFV/32777/seo/1/search/cleveland/sfv/32777/field/1/prods_per_page/96
old school tricks include aluminum spray paint on the gaskets, more modern is copper spray.
copper gaskets are supposed to be anealed before use, i'm not sure if the Titans are annealed or not but they have sealant on them like FelPro Print-o-Seal, possible that some old school copper gaskets are not annealed as sold.
http://www.steamengine.com.au/ic/faq/annealing-copper.html
http://www.headgasket.com/preinstall.html
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