what choices are out there besides cometic which seems so hit or miss its not even worth the risk. just looking for something. 040 to maybe .050 thickness to bring my comp. down a few tenths and leave more room for a safety margin against bad gas etc...

 

What risk? I've always used cosmetic. Both thicker and STD.

 

yeah, what risk? I've never heard of a cometic gasket having issues, unless the head and/or block were not true.

 

Cometic is good. Excellent nitrile coating on their MLS honda gaskets.

 

alright then, you guys have me sold.

reading through searches for a few hours yesterday had lots of bad issues with the gaskets. many of them were f/i setups if that really matters.

 

most of them were probably people who didnt take the proper steps to make sure they had a clean finished deck or user error.

Ive used 2 cometics and one of them pulled off the head looking like it was new.

 

i had problems a few years ago with the golden eagle 84mmvtec gaskets on my boost motor, then i changed up the tq sequence on the arp's to 25-50-80 and no issues since.

i did the same on this motor but with a felpro gasket. head was checked and within spec, block was decked a few thousandths. at some point soon i have to replace the valve guides and was contemplating a slightly thicker gasket to get me closer to 11:1 than 12:1. shoulda use the itr pistons instead of the pr3's but hindsight is a ****

 

x2.
I've never heard of a single issue with a cometic gasket that was an issue with the gasket itself. and trust me when I say I deal with a LOT of engine builds, both n/a and f/i

 

Ive got a .030 cometic on my 86 bore bseries motor yhat was used once then reused in a pinch and didnt leak either time.
I used hylomar or super high tack cant remember but i used it both times and to seal and reseal on an 86 bore has sold me on them.
My next will be in the .070-.080 thickness range for my new setup.
Hope this helps

 

Have a Buddyclub .018 comin in any day now....

 

only problem I have ever seen with cometic is once and a while there will be some material leftover from manufacturing laying in between the layers. always be sure to separate/inspect the gasket before installing it.

you can also make a gasket as thick as you want using layers of oem or aftermarket mls gasket. just be sure to use a flat layer between each of the embossed layers.

 

The great Cometic myth on Honda-Tech. I've used several on my personal engines and never had an issue with one.

 

The biggest problems we've seen on head gasket failures are user errors. You can't blow a head gasket and expect to just swap them out. People put a cometic head gasket on with out machining ,prepping or at the very least inspecting mating sufaces, the next big issue we see on F.I or high compression builds is tuning errors, tuners detonate and when the gasket goes they blame it on said gasket company. If you are looking into lowering your compression there are other options like machining the chambers which can lower your comp. Ratio and promote low lift flow, you can also run a different piston with lower dome cc. But to answer the question as long as you take the appropriate steps when installing the cometic gasket you will have no issues.

 

I have used many sets of Cometic gaskets on my Mustang on various set-ups and engines. Never had an issue. Naturally I bought a Cometic for my Honda. I then seen all the bad Cometic reviews in the Honda community and wondered why. Then when I considered the B18 owner demographic which is by and large teenagers that are scraping by and half @ss doing stuff it all became clear.

 

lol, sad but true. I'm glad at least someone gets it. it's not just teenagers though, its a large part of the Honda community of all ages, doing "budget builds", aka "I'm broke but want my car to go faster or in the least just be driveable".

there's nothing wrong with budget builds, it's really quite easy to do properly with Hondas. but the people need to be smart about it and know what things are absolutely necessary to do to save time and money in the long run