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Head Gasket Choice?

djr81

By djr81,
in Engines & Forced Induction

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djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
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Posted

looks good djr81, :). carillos are top rods and the pistons look like mahle?

Yeah they are Mahle. Rods are the basic H patterns - ie not with the flash bolts. Good enough for what I want. Got some ARP studs as well.

Need the head gasket, other general gaskets, bearings and to decide about the crank, ie new or refurbished existing. The bolt on stuff is all covered. Visa card needs to recover a bit too.

Hard bit is finding someone over here in WA to build it, ie knowledgeable, interested, trustworthy & who will actually listen to what I want. Unfortunately we have tuner wars whereby whoever you are talking to will promise you their tuner/engine builder is brilliant and going anywhere else will ensure the engine blows in very short order.

Beer Baron Grand Master

Beer Baron

Posted
Posted

mate it's exactly the same here with the "well we build the best engines and our tuner is by far the best and you go anywhere else you are risking your engine" when the truth is sadly many of them are hopeless.

nothing wrong with the basic h pattern carillos. they are a good rod. the mahle pistons are good too and from memory 2618 alloy so a bit stronger than the average 4032s around. crank is a tough call. new cranks are very reasonable prices and a good bit of insurance if there is any doubt over the straightness of the used crank. either way I wouldn't spend bags of money modding a stock crank. some basic stuff like good balancing and cross drilling etc is worth while but some people go nuts removing heaps of material and trying to knife edge etc. no worth it.

tomei gasket kit will give you most of the bits you need and all the gear is good quality. either tomei or some bits are just gen nissan. otherwise I'd probably go the nissan kit which is pretty similar.

builder in WA I can't help with but there are some good ones around aus that are only a courier away.....

djr81 Grand Master

djr81

Posted
  • Author
Posted

mate it's exactly the same here with the "well we build the best engines and our tuner is by far the best and you go anywhere else you are risking your engine" when the truth is sadly many of them are hopeless.

nothing wrong with the basic h pattern carillos. they are a good rod. the mahle pistons are good too and from memory 2618 alloy so a bit stronger than the average 4032s around. crank is a tough call. new cranks are very reasonable prices and a good bit of insurance if there is any doubt over the straightness of the used crank. either way I wouldn't spend bags of money modding a stock crank. some basic stuff like good balancing and cross drilling etc is worth while but some people go nuts removing heaps of material and trying to knife edge etc. no worth it.

tomei gasket kit will give you most of the bits you need and all the gear is good quality. either tomei or some bits are just gen nissan. otherwise I'd probably go the nissan kit which is pretty similar.

builder in WA I can't help with but there are some good ones around aus that are only a courier away.....

I will probably end up buying a new crank - just the stock Nissan one. Other than the head gasket I am not fussed. May just let the engine builder sort what they need.

It is easy enough to drive the car to Perth & get the train home to Bunno. Then do the reverse when it is finished. I have a couple mobs in mind for the build but I want to get my ducks in a row before I annoy anyone too much. The "custom secret specification" types wont be getting a look in.

  • 1 month later...
Beer Baron Grand Master

Beer Baron

Posted
Posted

i have never used one personally but I know plenty of people running cometic gaskets without enough problems to suggest there is anything faulty in their design or manufacture. sure buying a nissan VRS gasket kit and then replacing the HG with something MLS (cosworth, tomei etc) is a good way to go and plenty of people have done it that way. but if you're going to do that you might as well just buy the tomei gasket kit which not only has the MLS head gasket but also includes the better MLS exhaust gaskets too, the rest in the kit are gen nissan.

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