GoonieZ28

Well I bought a whole intake gasket set to fix my car.... but then I was in a dealership parts department and one guy was saying to stay away from FelPro. He said they use teflon in the gaskets, which is known to prevent things from sticking. Isn't this the opposite of what I want then? So he recommended stock replacement ones. My friend fixed his intake with FelPro gaskets and he's had two leaks already. Could it just be that he didn't seal it properly and the the GM guy was just trying to sell me GM products? Or could it be that FelPro isn't the best thing for the intake gasket? What do you guys think?

Kingtal0n

I will only use Felpro, especially the Head gaskets. Intake gaskets need proper torque specs to be leak free, not to mention they need to be the right thickness. Just because its leaking doesnt mean its the gaskets fault. Stock replacment gaskets are "alright" but Felpro makes the best in my opinion. Your best option is to use a light bead of RTV High Temp Silicone around the gaskets surface anyways, thus no matter what its going to stick. the silicon will take up any gaps but make sure you torque it before the silicon dries.

Felpro = good.

Slade1

It doesn't matter what gaskets you use, improperly torqued bolts will almost always cause a leak. You know what else? Reusing previously torqued bolts. You can't reuse the same bolts to torque up the heads. You should always get a new set of bolts for engine parts that require specific torques. Heads always, intake, can get away in rare cases but not always, headers, new bolts. You're only asking for double the work if you go cheap and reuse...

The reason is that those bolts are single torques only. They are designed to "stretch" the first time torqued to spec to stay bolted in during vibration. When removed, they are essentially warped and will not hold the same torque. You can get them to spec, but they won't perform like spec and you will end up with a blown gasket or worse.

Mark A Shields

I've never heard anyone bad mouth Fel Pro before.

GoonieZ28

Yeah, what's up with that. Thanks for the response guys. I guess this guy really didn't like teflon or he gets commission if I buy GM products, or something like that. I'm gonna stick with the Felpro set that I have unless anyone else has heard bad things? I want to do it once, and do it right.
Thanks!

JAY4SPEED

I'm a technician at a Chevy dealer. Delco {GM} gaskets are good. They work just fine. But want to know whats under my intake manifold in my camaro?? YUP YOU GUESSED IT FELPRO! I have never had a gasket failure yet with Felpro with the exception of header to cyl head gasket. I'm very satisfied with them. The gaskets are coated in teflon to make gasket removal easier the next time around. GM gaskets are just compressed paper fibers and are a bitch to remove when doing an intake. Like whats been said above, get you a service manual and torque all critical bolts on an engine to factory specs.

Jay

Fast3rdGen

last time i checked, small block chevy head bolts were not a torque-to-yield bolt. all you have to do is put sealer on the threads when you re-use them. neither i nor anyone i know has had any problems reusing head bolts.

i use the graphite coated steel head gaskets out of the gm performance parts book, but in the past i have always had good luck with the fel-pro products......just don't use the plain jane gm replacement fiber gaskets. oh and unless you are using the thick felpro perma-torques.....don't forget to re-torque the head bolts after a few hundred miles.

laiky

Fel-pro is the best. hands down they are considered the standard by which others are judged.

SBC's don't use torque to yeild bolts, this seems to be a OEM idear that seems baseless. They break often and are a pain to install. Think about it "torque to Yeild" means torque to failure. If they stretch when torqued and yeild then they lose there elasticity and therefore there clamping ability.