Toallhisdoom Posted September 5, 2012 Share Posted September 5, 2012 did you use oem headgaskets? i used ebay ones and after 4 days my car started overheating. Replaced with OEM ones and has been running great for a year or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormac1993 Posted September 5, 2012 Author Share Posted September 5, 2012 I used FelPro Headgaskets. They're every bit as good as oem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddog Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 I used FelPro Headgaskets. They're every bit as good as oem. No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toallhisdoom Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Yea no. Take it apart, and replace it with an oem headgasket. Sorry bub. If you really want to test it to see if it is the head gasket again, use a pressure tester on your radiator and see if it holds pressure, and then try using a vacuum pump to remove the coolant out of the radiator. With mine, it held pressure in, but when i tried to create vacuum on it, air was going past the head gaskets so that i could not draw vacuum. I took the cheap route as well, i did not want to spend $120 on head gaskets, so i bought $40 ebay ones. Needless to say i had to pull the engine twice because of this cheap mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOHCEJ22E1 Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Well, he's already got it together & running so give him a few before he does it again. If the felpros are MLS, they should last a bit. Plus if they dont last, we'll all know just how long they DO hold up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toallhisdoom Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Well i put MLS ones in mine, off of ebay. And after 4 days, it started to overheat. And i gave him 2 simple tests to determine if the HG is leaking or not before he pulls it. So he should at least try those tests out. and i just checked, the ones i bought were felpro..... so they are junk! i got 4 days outta mine. haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOHCEJ22E1 Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Well i put MLS ones in mine, off of ebay. And after 4 days, it started to overheat. And i gave him 2 simple tests to determine if the HG is leaking or not before he pulls it. So he should at least try those tests out. and i just checked, the ones i bought were felpro..... so they are junk! i got 4 days outta mine. haha Oh s**t... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toallhisdoom Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Yeaaa and i torqued everything properly, had heads machined. all that. So i know it was just the HG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaz98gt Posted September 6, 2012 Share Posted September 6, 2012 Yeah it sucks. Also, there's some sputtering going on sometimes, mainly when I shift into reverse. Could the overheating before have damaged the coil packs? Overheating shouldn't do anything to the pack; has it happened before? Felpro is junk, and unfortunately they're cheap and reel people in. I helped a friend change his on a 2.5rs, and his were done after 2 months. Heads machined, radiator flushed, the works...oem gaskets haven't given him grief yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormac1993 Posted September 6, 2012 Author Share Posted September 6, 2012 I've never had a problem with FelPro. I'm babying my car since I didn't replace the rod bearings anyway. I'm gonna get the whole motor rebuilt once I save up a few thousand, so it won't matter then anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddog Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Felpro works fine for almost anything else. Headgaskets on these cars? No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kennyfvholla Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 I believe the reason for the high failure rate on the Fel-Pro or any other non-OEM MLS or graphite gaskets is that they are just not torqued down and seated properly. I also believe some aviation permitex works wonders on sealing them up. It allows them to seat during the intial engine runs. Seating them is just as important as the propper torque techniques and values. I installed graphite head gaskets from a $70 kit on eBay. It was installed like I just suggested. I drove it almost 4k miles since the job and didn't have one single problem. That's also after I accidentally allowed the engine to overheat twice because I forgot to plug the secondary fan back in. The MAIN difference between the original OEM head gaskets and the redesigned gaskets is the metal bore seal on the gasket. It's MUCH larger in the diameter thickness and width (inside to outside). That's just my $0.02 on this situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark_thorns Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 if you're skilled enough with a welder, then i would suggest turning it into a semi-closed deck. with it being an open deck system it allows for the head gasket o go bad really quick. or there are shops that can turn it into a closed deck system, and i have seen threads where people have a DIY to turn it into a closed deck system. (although i'm not sure if i'd trust the diy, atleast not by the method i saw. =P) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormac1993 Posted September 9, 2012 Author Share Posted September 9, 2012 I've heard "Your pistons will hit the Fel Pro gaskets" from a guy trying to sell me his crap. I've heard "The FelPro's fail right after you put them in" from people who drive their cars like they stole them. And now everyone (accept kenny) on this forum is telling me that the FelPro's are junk. For lack of something better to say, Where the hell were all of you three months ago when I BOUGHT the head gaskets and had 30 days to return them? I've had at least 10 or 12 build threads going, at least half of which I mentioned the FelPro's. I already bought the gaskets, took the engine out, rebuilt it, put it back in, and drove the car home. Don't go on and on about the gaskets NOW. How about something relevant? Thanks Kennyfvholla, I appreciate your positivism. Also, thanks to the people on the first page who helped me troubleshoot the problem (it needed to be burped). Now if all of the "felpro sucks" people will excuse me, I'd like to steer this thread back into a progressive direction. @kaz98gt: The first time the sputtering problem rose up was after I overheated the car, let it cool WAY back down to 25% on the temp gauge, and started it up to get it on the tow truck. It sputtered and putted for a good minute before it started running right (and overheating) again. Now after the rebuild, the car didn't initially sputter, but after a 1/2 mile or so I put the car in reverse to back into a spot. This is when I first noticed the same sputtering problem. Also, the car was still overheating, I burped the system and let it sit overnight, then it drove a good 5 miles without the overheating OR the sputtering. 122 miles later, no sputtering, no overheating. Any idea what the sputter could have been? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Off Road SHO Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Vapor lock bubbles in the fuel line from the overheating perhaps? Some fuel systems seem to be more suceptable to air pockets than others. Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark_thorns Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 felpro is one of the top rank gasket makers from what i know, like i said if you're going to rebuild it look at trying to make it into a closed deck or atleast a semi-closed deck system, even with just a semi-closed deck system the head gasket will have more of an area to seat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kennyfvholla Posted September 9, 2012 Share Posted September 9, 2012 I can't tell you why the car was sputter and then all of a sudden stopped over heating. That doesn't really make much sense to me. The motor can sputter for several reasons, as well as over heat for several reasons. None of which would be a product or cause of the other on these cars. Fel-Pro makes decent stuff, but it's really not the best. It's prducts are cheaper than they used to be, and you don't expect that. But they are not bad products. Also, whether the motor is open, semi-closed, or closed, won't really matter if the job is done the way that is suppoesed to be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dark_thorns Posted September 10, 2012 Share Posted September 10, 2012 but if you're giving it a better seating it's only going to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaz98gt Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Vapor lock bubbles in the fuel line from the overheating perhaps? Some fuel systems seem to be more suceptable to air pockets than others. Tom This. I wouldn't pin the sputtering on anything electric or intake related; I'd say it's something with the fuel. The car wouldn't overheat if it's running awfully lean and choking/sputtering like that because a) you're not driving it and b) it's hardly making any power. I'd cure the overheating problem for good first, then worry about the sputtering; the two seem related. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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