Anybody feel an OEM headgasket and studs was a mistake?

[Spence]

Hi guys, after my fiasco with replacing and upgrading to gsc valve seals, and replacing the headgasket along with OEM and TSP's arp stud kit. I am starting to worry the oem gasket might be a mistake as some said the cometic gasket is better than the OEM.

Believe it or not the valve seals were more difficult than replacing the headgasket I kid you not

I did the headgasket cause the techs at my shop said "look you're already 90% there with the valve seals, do the headgasket while youre in there" And I'm glad I listened.

I talked to a few techs if OEM was the right choice and they said "oem is best"


Thanks
-Spence

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[LBP]

The OEM gasket is fine. The vast majority of its failures are because the stock head bolts are weak. With ARP studs and a proper installation you should have no issue with the OEM gasket.

 

[Spence]

The OEM gasket is fine. The vast majority of its failures are because the stock head bolts are weak. With ARP studs and a proper installation you should have no issue with the OEM gasket.

Thanks man

 

[yaom1ng]

cometic is only 73.5mm

 

[speedyserg]

Hi guys, after my fiasco with replacing and upgrading to gsc valve seals, and replacing the headgasket along with OEM and TSP's arp stud kit. I am starting to worry the oem gasket might be a mistake as some said the cometic gasket is better than the OEM.

Believe it or not the valve seals were more difficult than replacing the headgasket I kid you not

I did the headgasket cause the techs at my shop said "look you're already 90% there with the valve seals, do the headgasket while youre in there" And I'm glad I listened.

I talked to a few techs if OEM was the right choice and they said "oem is best"

Thanks
-Spence

OEM is hardly ever the best choice as they have to make compromises for cost. A mass produced oem gasket is as cheap as they can get away with given the stock parameters of power/heat plus a touch more. Honda is better than most but the oem gasket can always be improved on by the aftermarket.

JE makes amazing headgaskets for the FK8 - so far they have held 842whp with more to come. Cometic has popped in the 700whp range (See Fuzzy FK8 pop video)

I don't know if JE makes a pro seal gasket for the 1.5s yet but if I owned an Si I would be hounding them to offer it as there are millions of civics with a 1.5L turbo motor. $$$$ for them IMO

My oem gasket is about $58 and the JE Pro Seal is $350 - while there may be some retail markup in there- the JE has already proven itself to hold more power/heat than the other available options.

Guys have cooked FK8 gaskets at 300whp so it's not so much a power thing either - our motors run hot, so heat is another factor - more power = more heat = bye bye oem coating = seal broken

Honda makes great stuff but everything has a limit. I don't fault them for the gasket as most folks will never have an issue but those of us who push these cars will find the weak links.

Cheers.

 

[Spence]

OEM is hardly ever the best choice as they have to make compromises for cost. A mass produced oem gasket is as cheap as they can get away with given the stock parameters of power/heat plus a touch more. Honda is better than most but the oem gasket can always be improved on by the aftermarket.

JE makes amazing headgaskets for the FK8 - so far they have held 842whp with more to come. Cometic has popped in the 700whp range (See Fuzzy FK8 pop video)

I don't know if JE makes a pro seal gasket for the 1.5s yet but if I owned an Si I would be hounding them to offer it as there are millions of civics with a 1.5L turbo motor. $$$$ for them IMO

My oem gasket is about $58 and the JE Pro Seal is $350 - while there may be some retail markup in there- the JE has already proven itself to hold more power/heat than the other available options.

Guys have cooked FK8 gaskets at 300whp so it's not so much a power thing either - our motors run hot, so heat is another factor - more power = more heat = bye bye oem coating = seal broken

Honda makes great stuff but everything has a limit. I don't fault them for the gasket as most folks will never have an issue but those of us who push these cars will find the weak links.

Cheers.

Thanks, would you think its bad enough I should buy a Cometic headgasket to have on hand? I kinda wished I went with one initially, but here I am with an OEM gasket installed with ARP studs, lol I don't feel like taking my car apart again lol. Hoping to get at least another 40k miles out of the fresh oem gasket.

I am tuned on tsp stage one too with a few bolt ons like intake and exhaust.

 

[speedyserg]

Thanks, would you think its bad enough I should buy a Cometic headgasket to have on hand? I kinda wished I went with one initially, but here I am with an OEM gasket installed with ARP studs, lol I don't feel like taking my car apart again lol. Hoping to get at least another 40k miles out of the fresh oem gasket.

I am tuned on tsp stage one too with a few bolt ons like intake and exhaust.

At this point it's too late so keep the motor cool and you should be fine. I don't think your making enough torque to lift the head again so heat should be your only worry.

I'd stay away from cometic and see if JE has a gasket or will make a gasket for you. It'd basically bomb proof which is peace of mind - maybe when you decide to run cams/port the head you can upgrade to a better gasket then. For now I think you should be fine.

I'll be releasing ported head numbers soon for the L15b7 platform - I gained about 50 to 70whp across the board so gains are there - don't know what your heads will yield but should be pretty impressive combined with cams.

 

[Chris_19Si]

You seem to be adequately covered for the stage 1 tune. I ran flex fuel for a couple years on stock bolts and gasket without issue. Only recently upgraded to studs, by replacing one at a time. Still no issues. Start trying to relax more and enjoy the car.

 

[gtman]

Spence ---

On the Si, most of the gasket failures were on cars running flex tunes. The TSP 1 is a super mild tune. Like Chris said, just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

 

[Spence]

Thanks again guys. Time to enjoy my car lol been misery for like 2 weeks while it sat apart due to between ordering parts and waiting for them to arrive, changing plans etc. Funny once I had the studs and headgasket in hand, and the valve seals done, the car was back together in a day

 

[GrDeleto]

At this point it's too late so keep the motor cool and you should be fine. I don't think your making enough torque to lift the head again so heat should be your only worry.

I'd stay away from cometic and see if JE has a gasket or will make a gasket for you. It'd basically bomb proof which is peace of mind - maybe when you decide to run cams/port the head you can upgrade to a better gasket then. For now I think you should be fine.

I'll be releasing ported head numbers soon for the L15b7 platform - I gained about 50 to 70whp across the board so gains are there - don't know what your heads will yield but should be pretty impressive combined with cams.

Whats JE? all i know is JE pistons.

 

[speedyserg]

Whats JE? all i know is JE pistons.

Same company- they make headgaskets as well.

https://mountuneusa.com/products/je-pro-seal-head-gasket-honda-k20c1

This is the gasket I'm running - so far its held 842whp in John Ps FK8 - I'm only making 600whp so it has plenty of room to go before I would question it.

The L15b7 could benefit from this level of gasket with quality headstuds. Obviously the rotating assembly has to be beefed up but if your gasket let's loose - what's the point of a built motor right?

 

[GrDeleto]

Same company- they make headgaskets as well.

https://mountuneusa.com/products/je-pro-seal-head-gasket-honda-k20c1

This is the gasket I'm running - so far its held 842whp in John Ps FK8 - I'm only making 600whp so it has plenty of room to go before I would question it.

The L15b7 could benefit from this level of gasket with quality headstuds. Obviously the rotating assembly has to be beefed up but if your gasket let's loose - what's the point of a built motor right?

We don't have je it looks like. Only cosmetic. Also wdym by rotating assembly upgrade?

 

[speedyserg]

We don't have je it looks like. Only cosmetic. Also wdym by rotating assembly upgrade?

To make reliable big power on an L15 you'll want to upgrade the rotating assembly which is basically the crank/rods/pistons - ososik ended up snapping aftermarket rods so even the off the shelf stuff at the time had its limits. Today I believe he is on custom rods in his search for 800+whp with the 1.5L motor. Alot of the low budget rods are rated for 6 to 700hp so you have to put in a quality rod ($$$) designed for more. Back then he was limited in options off the shelf so he made due with what he could get his hands on. Thus, eventually found their limits.

Granted - he was using nitrous on top of a crap ton of boost

 

[GrDeleto]

To make reliable big power on an L15 you'll want to upgrade the rotating assembly which is basically the crank/rods/pistons - ososik ended up snapping aftermarket rods so even the off the shelf stuff at the time had its limits. Today I believe he is on custom rods in his search for 800+whp with the 1.5L motor. Alot of the low budget rods are rated for 6 to 700hp so you have to put in a quality rod ($$$) designed for more. Back then he was limited in options off the shelf so he made due with what he could get his hands on. Thus, eventually found their limits.

Granted - he was using nitrous on top of a crap ton of boost

Tbf a majority of the people here aren't really aiming for that 600/700hp level. Though thing is when ososik's 11th si blew. It wasn't necessary good press.

Also add when honda raced 2 si's at thunderhill 24 hours. Both blew though they were using previous gen tunes. Explains why the 11lth gen aftermarket for the si has kinda been ehhh.

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