Thread: Gaskets - rubber or cork or rubber and cork?

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Looking into redoing the engine and will be needing to replace gaskets through out the engine (valve covers, intake, headers). I hear of rubber gaskets and cork gaskets and most recently rubberized-cork gaskets. What is your opinion on gaskets? I've heard both sides but still unsure as to which I should use.

Thanks fellas

Straight "cork" is old-tech, lacks elasticity, gets hard/brittle, and aren't any kind of reuseable (thinking v.c. at valve adjust time).

How about which works best under extreme heat because my engine heats up considerably.

Good read http://www.federal-mogul.com/cda/con...6_7495,00.html

I suggest just go buy a felpro gasket set, use what comes with it, all the gaskets worked great as long as your not planning on tearing it apart a lot. I had only trouble with cork valve cover gaskets, rubber seems to work great for valve covers and are reusable, they do tend to heat up and you have to check them occasionally, but maybe thats just my experiences.

I don't know why cork still exists. Cork gaskets cut easily if overtorqued, they age rapidly, and the seep oil. Rubberized cork, felt, and neoprene gaskets are worlds better than cork. Any place the mating surfaces are flat (eg. thermostat housings) it is better to use no gasket and put a little silicone in there. I still use gaskets, though, because they clean up easier. I use Hylomar HPF to dress gaskets. It's extremely tacky, so it will hold the gasket in place, but it never hardens for easy disassembly and cleanup.

That's great info to keep in mind. I was leaning towards Felpro gaskets because I've heard good things about them. It also sounds like cork is out of the question and speaking of cork I just noticed that the valve cover gaskets I have now are cork... and they seep.

Cork valve cover gaskets are supposed to be re-torqued. If their new, you may have to do just that. As for Fel-pro gaskets, thats all i ever use and i havent been let down.

I recently bought a transmission filter kit from a company called ATP. I believe their kit is much better than Fel-Pro's kit for several reasons. ATP uses a paper filter as opposed to a screen type. The paper filter has much better filtration properties. They also use a neoprene gasket with some of the bolt holes cut small. You can push a few of the bolts through the gasket and the gasket will hold them so everything stays lined up. Because the gasket is neoprene, and not cork, you will destroy the pan due to over torque before you cut the gasket. I used to get a film of tranny fluid on my pan, now I don't get it. The cost isn't bad either at $8 as opposed to $7 for the Fel-Pro kit.