I'm planning on porting my intake if I have some time to waste this summer, and was pricing gaskets, but it's going to be almost $40 in gaskets alone, but I can get a gasket set from NAPA for a mere $12.95 that's supposed to include the LIM-UIM and Engine-LIM gasket.

Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with 3rd party gaskets like these (they're the Beck-Arnley ones).

 

A gasket is a gasket pretty much. All it does is compress and form a seal between 2 imperfect metal surfaces. The only thing is that some of them are more prone to tearing if you disassemble parts later...whereas the mazda ones often stay in one piece and are reuseable.

I wouldnt sweat it, go for the cheap ones.

 

Ah, excellent. I'll get right on porting my intake runners as soon as I can find the pics again.

Thanks for the speedy answer.

 

I have actually heard of very experienced engine builders who use beer/pop case cardboard. They're about the same thickness as the factory gaskets. I like this idea and plan to employ it next time I need an intake gasket.

Whatever you use, include a layer of Hylomar on both sides. Makes things so much nicer next time.

 

Thing about that, it takes a steady hand and a new razor blade to make the cuts properly...it's worth 5 or 10 bucks for precut gaskets. The only time I make my own gaskets is for blockoff plates, where I use cork gasket...it's easy to cut and make holes into it.

 

You make a good point about the cutting. I was thinking of a cookie cutter style device to punch out the holes and then the outline shouldn't be too bad. It's always good to know about options.

 

I brought up this subject a while back about making my own gaskets and got flamed and was called a cheap ***. Guess I'm not the only one.

 

lol, no joke? I suppose you could. In that case, even RTV would probably work just fine (that's what I've used for the block-offs I've done so far), but that stuff makes a mess and sucks if you want to yank something off in the future.

I'll definatly look into getting some hylomar too. That's the red lube they use for engine rebuilds, right?

 

I've only seen blue hylomar. It's groovey looking stuff.