Small bore head gasket

[Rich997]

Hello all,

Need a good quality head gasket, the 'performance' items seem to be OOS with the popular suppliers.

I tend to rely on Keith Calver articles for advice, which has put me off using the ones I happened to have (BGA composite but have a shiny reverse).

Also have had problems in the past with copper, possibly weren't genuine Payen or just unlucky.

Is anyone using Cometic on small bore, if so can you tell me the part number please?

Any tips on which one to use and who has them on the shelf works be grately appreciated.

Cheers

[Hipwell]

I will be using the Victor Reinz gasket, available from various suppliers off eBay. Less than £20 and they look ok and the design is OEM proven.

Everywhere you look you get people struggling with Payen gaskets. Had one for a Triumph recently, quality was shocking, ended up fitted a cheap Far East alternative.

Multi layer shim gaskets only work well on freshly machined perfectly flat deck faces, A-series blocks notoriously pull up around the studs so you would need to get heavy with a file unless rebuilding.

[Rich997]

Thanks for the insight, I have seen the Victor Reinz gaskets on ebay, will pick one up.

I've had a problem with copper, possibly due to imperfections on the block/head, but the modern copper gaskets just dont seem to be as good as they once were.

Happy to go for composite material, just wanted to canvas opinion on which is the best available.

KC recommends genuine Rover gaskets but havent seen any of those on ebay in years, regrettably the Minispares performance gasket is out if stock, or I would have tried it.

Cheers

[850man]

I second the Victor Reinz gaskets. We use them regularly and have not had any issues.

[Hipwell]

Thanks for the insight, I have seen the Victor Reinz gaskets on ebay, will pick one up.

I've had a problem with copper, possibly due to imperfections on the block/head, but the modern copper gaskets just dont seem to be as good as they once were.

Happy to go for composite material, just wanted to canvas opinion on which is the best available.

KC recommends genuine Rover gaskets but havent seen any of those on ebay in years, regrettably the Minispares performance gasket is out if stock, or I would have tried it.

Cheers

I have bought one of every type of gasket I can find to have a look at including the unicorn ACL gasket Minispares sold for a while. The last 998 I helped a friend with, we got the gasket off Guessworks for about £4-5. It worked fine. VR is a much higher quality product. See they are doing more and more gaskets for the A-Series which can only be a good thing

[Spider]

I too have fitted a few of the Victor Reinz gaskets that Hipwell referred to. I thought they were pretty good, but would like to see a bit more time and miles too. For what ever it's worth, I haven't heard of anyone having issues with them.

[Minigman]

I recently bought a Victor Reinz one from Keith Calver. It’s what he is recommending currently.

[Rich997]

Thanks all.

Appreciate hearing your advice, Victor Reinz it is then.

Also did notice their other mini items on eBay, which had never come into view before.

Didn't know ACL did head gaskets.

[850man]

Didn't know ACL did head gaskets.

ACL made the best A series headgasket you could buy.
But they stopped production a few years ago and the they have all but dried up, except for the few left in private collections.