PWR vs. Cosworth head gaskets

[timtiminy]

hey guys i am looking into getting a mls head gasket for my sr20det rebuild. pwr gasket is $220 and cosworth is $125. Both seem to be reputable. I am willing to spend the extra $95 if its worth it. Anyone with experience with either or both?

[blitzkrgCT9A]

hey guys i am looking into getting a mls head gasket for my sr20det rebuild. pwr gasket is $220 and cosworth is $125. Both seem to be reputable. I am willing to spend the extra $95 if its worth it. Anyone with experience with either or both?


Cosworth

but then again, Cometic makes head gaskets for Cosworth.

[timtiminy]

hmm, might as well go with cometic then if i am going to go with cosworth... PWR is supposedly like the Apexi and Greddy head gaskets, and i only hear good things about that design.

[McRussellPants]

Apexi and Greddy are different designs.


Apex-i or Power Enterprises.

done.

[Sileighty_85]

+1 Power Enterprise

Im using one. Its Worth it ^_^b

[timtiminy]

i will probably fork out the cash for the pwr. I am only looking to go 300whp do you think its overkill?

[LongGrain]

cosworth or apex'i IMO

[racepar1]

Let me get this straight. The COSWORTH gasket is cheaper than the PWR one, significantly cheaper, and you are still considering the PWR gasket? SERIOUSLY? COSWORTH, that company with like 50+ years of racing heritage including DOMINATING F1 for years! I really don't think this is even a question. What could possibly be any better about the PWR gasket?

[coolcatracing]

Cosworth

but then again, Cometic makes head gaskets for Cosworth.

Where did you hear that. Eric Hsu even showed testing between Cometic and Cosworth and you can see a clear sealing difference between the two, if they were the same the results would be the same.

[ak_slick]

Seriously, get a Cometic straight from cometic. Unless one of those companies offers a rolled edge that wraps over the layers other than that then the extra money it is definitely not worth it.

Just remember with mls you need to get your block and head prepped and you should be using ARP studs. If you do this you should easily be safe to 700+hp. The thing people tend to forget about mls gaskets and why some people think cometic makes crap is because the only thing that can go wrong with these is a user error( not prepping to correct roughness specs on the block and head) Prep it and you will be more than happy.

The Power MLS Full Grommet looks like it has the rolled edge, really it is way over kill for you, you will never notice it with a 300hp goal, and really if you are gonna shoot for higher goals where you are thinking about getting a rolled edge gasket you should just o-ring your engine as it is the proper way to do it.

By the way cometic always has great customer service and response at least for me. here is their number 800-752-9850.

Good Luck

[WilloW]

Apex'i or Power Enterprise like stated above.

[ak_slick]

And one other thing. when you torque your head bolts do it once. then let it sit over night- 24hours and check/torque them again. Then you should be all good.

[McRussellPants]

You'll never notice any difference between stock at 400hp.

Apex-i and PE have the rolled edge. if you're gonna buy one you might as well buy the best one.

[timtiminy]

ak slick: i have heard lots of negative feedback on the cometic, but i have also heard positive feedback. its seems that most people that havent even used it trash talk it because of some horror stories they have heard. I am thinking as long as everything is properly done it should work just as good as any other head gasket.

Oh and why use ARP studs when oem ones can hold more than enough power for me?

[coolcatracing]

The ARP studs are just better insurance and they do help even at your power levels. I've use Cometic in nearly every performance engine I've built from Honda's to Nissan's and never had any problems. I was going to use the Cosworth in my SR motor I'm building now just to see how I like their new stuff. For the power you're talking about the stock will work and all the others are just better insurance but as several people have said, the prep on the block and head are more important than with the stocker.

[s13drob]

dont ever skimp out on HGs. u get what u payed for. it would just make sense 2 get the best unless ur like me with a JDM SR20DE:sadwavey:

[timtiminy]

i dont feel comfortable getting apr studs since i have heard there has been issues with them stripping out the block because they dont have the correct thread depth. R.S. Enthalpy has made not of this and only builds SR's with OEM head bolts. just doesnt seem neccisary especially since i hear they arent neccisary till you go over 400hp, same as connecting rods.

[Slow Poke]

Cosworth... End of story

[johngriff]

Edit: (In this post what you refer to as the "rolled edge", I am calling the fire ring)

From my understanding the Cosworth does not have a fire ring on it.

I only like head gaskets with fire rings. I use OEM headgaskets over metal headgaskets all the time(because they have a fire ring), with NO PROBLEMS.

Other wise it is apexi, or Power Enterprises.

So, I am going to say Power Enterprises.

Prove me wrong.


Tim: Just use stock.

[Z U L8R]

commetic hg + arp head studs ftw

Dave

[timtiminy]

the only reason why i wont go with OEM is cause i am overboring to 86.5 so i guess it looks like pwr or apexi.. seem to be the same price about $220

[HalveBlue]

You can still run an OEM head gasket on 86.5mm

[rb25_s13*CHUKI]

Tomei Will own every single gasket that anyone just named... Think about getting a tomei gasket

[TheWolf]

Let me get this straight. The COSWORTH gasket is cheaper than the PWR one, significantly cheaper, and you are still considering the PWR gasket? SERIOUSLY? COSWORTH, that company with like 50+ years of racing heritage including DOMINATING F1 for years! I really don't think this is even a question. What could possibly be any better about the PWR gasket?

You'll find if you dig around in wikipedia that cosworth was sold and resold several times in the90's and eventually to two rich dudes that had owned huge hunks of now defunct cart.. they bought cosworth to assure they had an engine supplier for their two teams. Now all that's left of cosworth was the nameplate and they're whoring it out to whatever parts they can hook it up with. Cosworth Racing the british builder in all sense of the 50 years of racing history died 8 or so years ago. They moved to a little spot in cali and built couple engines for CART and then faded away. All that's left is the nameplate and some random sourced part lines.

[steve shadows]

hey guys i am looking into getting a mls head gasket for my sr20det rebuild. pwr gasket is $220 and cosworth is $125. Both seem to be reputable. I am willing to spend the extra $95 if its worth it. Anyone with experience with either or both?

why are those even on the table?

barf

Apexi (integrated Fire ring design) (Trust me I'm not a huge fan of Apexi, but the Headgasket is one thing they just nailed)

or call Mazworx they have custom designed one they worked with Power Enterprises design available for various larger bore sizes up to 90mm now.

[timtiminy]

So PWR and Apexi arent the same design?

[djcobra]

Apex-i, enough said! Daily drive my ~320whp without worrying about blowing a head gasket. I also love the little fancy Apex-i Tab infront of the engine :) **don't cheap out on your head gasket!

Steve.