Thread: Cometic head gasket defects ??

this is why i tell everyone to go with the cosworth hg, there is several places in the US to get them, they are about 160 shipped. The fitment around the dowels and cylinders are top notch and you dont have to worry about them slipping around when installing the head.

Ive also used a vvl metal gasket and the fitment and design of that one is awesome as well. i still think the cosworth out does it in quality and design though. But for a cheaper gasket there are many many people using them with no problems whatsoever. I would never use a cometic after hearing story after story. Sorry the design quality of the cometic is not that good either.

oh btw i will be doing two sr20 swaps into ae86's, any advice, you can pm me if youd like, id like to see some pics if possible. It should be fairly straight foward and there is a company that makes mount kits for the swap, we have a nice driveshaft shop here that can do a custom driveshaft as well. So the only other part is wiring and thats my specialty. haha

We will take some pics when after he goes top mount (pretty soon), the engine bay is a mess right now :P

The biggest pain in the ass was with the steering rack IIRC.

how is the clearance with the steering rack? havent heard of that issue if you use the mount kit that we found. Was it hitting the upper oil pan or the bottom pan.

AE86DET will have to answer that one lol, i dont really remember the details, I just remember is on the way of the downpipe. He did used some custom made motor mounts, and mounted the engine low on the engine bay and further back for stability.

yeah cuz i dont see why it wouldnt clear if you mounted the engine just a tad bit higher, the tunnel is plenty big enough to fit everything in there with ease. you can mount the sr20 in just about the same place as the 4ag thats in there now. So hmmm ill wait for him to chime in about that one. But we did find someone that makes custom mount kits for the swap. And i believe it says in the same ad for it that no clearance issues with using it either. So that will be fun to see.

Hehe well looks like we put an end to the main issue. it had to be the fitment around the dowels allowd it to move befor torquing it down.

and yeah i couldnt find that mounting kit so we did it locally. Bagato knows most of the build details since he was there nearly every step of the way. the issues with the rack. my exact words to the mechanic "mount it as far back as you can and as low" cuz i didnt want to hear Sh!T from any hachi guy here saying oh yeah man you got lots of power now but these cars are about balance. and bla bal bla. now if i hear any Sh!t talkers i just pop the hood and flip them off cuz my engine is lower and further back than their precios 4age 16v/20v hehehe. we used some spacers for the subframe and lowered everything aboout 1-1.5 inches so this put everything a bit closer to the rack the downpipe had to be about 2.25 inches to fit in the space there. but when i go top mount that should give me more wiggle room to do it with a weird but proper curve to get around any obstacle. will try to take some detailed pics for you soon.

Could you tell wich bore on the cometic.. 87 - 88? we have put 2 cometics on 2 sr20 more than 30 lbs and works without probs.. did you put copper spray on it? we do....
saludos.

The headaches are not over just yet. we finished putting it back together machined the surface of the head a little since it had been touched a little bit by the rings from the gasket... the block surface was fine.

OEM gasket and the result is... exactly the same, losing water and on boost it just blows it out the reserve tank. am running only 8 psi right now and not even going wot and revving hard. wtf is up with that?

My buddy Bagato has a theory that seems plausible cuz we are just completely stumped. i bought that engine used mechanic had noticed that it had been opened up before. we have had to open it up twice once for rings then started having this problem with the water. now we opened it up again hoping to fix it and made sure surfaces were good and replace gasket.... in all the times the heads been taken off the same head bolts have been used. could the be fatigued and stretched? would symptoms show up with such light conditions as normal driving and little boost??


anyone else have any other theories?