Here are some pics of my just over a week old Pineapple Racing graphite "aftermarket" gasket. It blew out after about 4 days. I heat cycled and retorqued the nuts too. I hope my exhaust wheel is ok, because I forgot to check when I replaced the gasket again today with an OEM one. As you can see it is missing a few chunks.
I cannot say enough good things about Pineapple Racing's customer support though. They credited me the money I spent on the graphite gasket and put it toward the oem one and they even covered the shipping. I wish all shops operated like them! I even searched a little before buying it and didn't find anything bad until after I ordered it Hopefully this thread will help someone in the future to make the right choice the first time.

 

I had the same issue with my downpipe gasket. Failed after only a few hundred mile

 

I'd check to make sure your flanges are flat.

 

Yes, check your flanges and make sure they're flat. May be worth it to resurface them. In fact, I recommend it before putting new gaskets in. Otherwise, this sort of thing will more than likely keep happening.

 

Rotary heat - just too much for that type of stuff to last long.

 

check your flanges
had almost exactly the same wear pattern on a turbo gasket
had to resurface

what's rotary heat?

 

You don't think that Pineapple racing would know about this 'rotary heat?'

 

i think he means that rotary's produce more heat than conventional engines

 

Yeah, rotary exhaust heat, much hotter than conventional engines.

I'm sure they know of rotary exhaust heat but many products are produced that are not full O.E. quality, people buy them and try them because they are much cheaper. It's not necessarily that they don't know or are trying to rip people off with inferior products - - it's just business.

Of course you could need surfacing in your particular case. But that type of gasket is going to be more prone to failure.

 

Well I checked the flanges as best I could with a straight edge, they seemed fine. When I pulled the turbo off again to put the new gasket on the nuts were semi loose, so I think they just kept backing off. I bought new hardware and double nutted them so everything should stay tight now. No leaks for a few days now. If it gives me problems again I will take it to get resurfaced.