Head & Intake Manifold Gasket Suggestions/Reliability Upgrades

[dabigpud]

Good morning all,

Wanted to reach out and see if anyone had specific recommendations for a particular brand of gasket sets for the GT500 heads/intake manifold. Giving the car a run through for general maintenance and condition and seem to be running into the relatively common vaporing issue.

If there was one particular brand or another that you guys like, I'd love to hear it before I go and get any old brand.

Also, any suggestions for improvements/upgrades to cooling etc. that have been done by any of you would also be welcomed!

Thanks.

Ryan

[gt350hr]

   I have NOS gaskets . PM me if you are interested. I will be taking them to SAAC43.
       Randy

[azdriver]

I prefer FelPro blue stripe. Results may vary.

Pat

[roddster]

  Over at a  "FE" site (DiyFord.com), Mr Gasket intake gaskets #202A were recommended often

[gt350hr]

   NOS 428 gaskets are spoken for.

[corbins]

Cometic head gaskets.... never fail .

[2112]

Cometic head gaskets.... never fail .

^^^This.  By far and away the best.

[1967 eight barrel]

As for intake gaskets, stay away from the FelPro Printo seal!!!  Cometic are the way to go head-gasket wise.

                                                                                        -Keith

[Bigfoot]

Don't forget the razor scraping tool.

[shelbydoug]

FE's don't necessarily get whacky with head gaskets UNTIL you put an aluminum head on an iron block.

THEN is when the monsters appear out of no where. The top on the ends near the oil drain back holes don't like to seal.

The bottom of the compression ring on the outer cylinders seems to have issues? The answer is PROBABLY a simple one there though, i.e., use studs rather then bolts.

It could be an original head bolt issue also not having the hardness it needs. Try ARP bolts. They aren't going to stretch as much, which means more clamping force for the same amount of torque and the reality is that you can't really document how many times the original bolts were torqued down. There likely is a limit to that.

The ARPS are going to be 190,000 psi tensile strength out of the box. The originals, although showing head markings of 180,000, are PROBABLY going to test out at about 160,000?

The FE's are definitely dinosaurs that survived the big meteor crash but they still retain many of  their pre-neanderthaul characteristics.

I like any of the blue Fel-pros but stay with what you have found works for you. The engine is certainly a little temperamental in certain respects, sometimes lacking logic and head gasket sealing is one of them.