head gasket

[applesauce]

Got a question, whats the best to rebuild a motor with a Bead or Stopper MHG.

[TcmaBoy]

Looks like another question for Ask Jeeves.

[Jeeves]

Reg Reimer said it best, so.... I'll quote him

*BEAD TYPE gasket is the most common type sold and used in the Toyota engines in our car club. This gasket is inexpensive and delivers very good performance and will last the life of your engine when installed correctly into an engine that is correctly prepared for the gasket.

*STOPPER TYPE gasket is the best gasket you can buy from HKS or any manufacturer. It is also the most expensive gasket design you can buy. This is because the manufacturing process used to produce this gasket is more complex as are its materials, therefore the cost to manufacture it is higher than the bead type gasket.

This is stolen from SupraMania. Here: http://www.supramania.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=18725&

Originally Posted by Supracentral

The easiest way is to look at the cross section of each gasket to see how it it makes it's seal

We'll start from least expensive to most expensive, and I'll throw my $.02 on each of them.

Bead Type:

As you can see, the bead type is exactly what it sounds like. A bead is run around each combustion chamber. It's a good gasket for most street cars, and can handle a considerable amount of boost when properly torqued.

Grommet Type:

As you can see, the grommet type gasket is actually a bead gasket with an extra "ring" around each cylinder. If you are going to spend the money on this gasket, I'd take the extra step and go right to the stopper type below.

Stopper Type:

This is the ultimate HKS gasket. As you can see by the design, it's a bead type gasket, and a grommet type gasket with the addition of the stopper being an integral part of one of the gasket layers. This is a very complex gasket to manufacture, however if you ever blow this gasket, you are REALLY doing something wrong. I've never seen one of these blow when installed with ARP studs and a properly torqued head. It's a monster of a gasket (with a monster price tag). However if you want to put the head on once, and run silly amounts of boost, this is the best gasket you can get.

[applesauce]

Jeeves saves the day, thanks.