Dirt Driver

In all the searching I have been doing this last week, I found a post that said "everyone gets to have a head gasket thread" or something to that effect. It does not appear to be inaccurate. (there's a Bubb Rubb smiley?)

I also found more bad reviews of Rock head gaskets than good. The background is that I got a rebuilt longblock back in '05 with a Rock HG already installed by the outfit that sold it. I didn't know as much then as I do now and didn't retorque the head(because there were no gasket instructions, the rebuilder didn't say it was necessary, and I was already familiar with Fel-Pro PermaTorque gaskets for another engine that don't need it). All was fine for ~35,000mi until the HG reached critical mass and coolant started disappearing about two weeks ago and whatever didn't vanish smelled strongly of exhaust. Fortunately it never got hot or made a milkshake out of the oil.

I changed the HG out over the weekend and found every single fire ring split, cracking, and generally falling apart:




This Fel-Pro 8087 PT-1 I've had since before the longblock is now taking its place:


It's a PermaTorque, but I still plan on retorquing the head. I will also add that I used the proper FSM sequences for removing and installed the head. I also used 65ft-lbs instead of 58 and tightened them in three steps.

That brings me to the questions posed in my thread title:

1.) Does anyone have a lot of miles on a Rock head gasket, or are they just inherently low-quality? The highest claim I found while searching was 30,000.

2.) Most importantly, how long do I wait before retightening the head? Recommendations vary between a single warmup/cooldown cycle and several hundred miles. I currently have three warmups and ~60mi on it.

snobdds

1) About 30,000 sounds about right for a rock head gasket. A buddy of mine rebuilt all his stuff with rock stuff and he was back in there doing it again at 28,000 miles.

2) If the holes have been cleaned and chased properly, then there should be no need to retorque the head bolts. However some will argue with me on this.

When using an OEM head gasket and ARP head studs, I have never retorqued the head down again. It must be a rock head gasket thing that they need retorqued after 500 miles. That alone should tell people all they need to know about rock head gaskets. But each there own...

Kaptain

I went through 2 of them and only got 10-15k out of each one. My 2nd one had the same problem with the fire rings falling apart. Both times were with a resurfaced head, very clean block surface, and ARP studs.

I've always checked the torque after 500, 1k, and 2k miles. I've always had few that would take about a 1/4 turn after the 500 mile check. After that they didn't budge. For the 5 minutes that it takes to take off the valve cover, why not check them?

I did a bunch of searching after my 2nd rock gasket failure and to my surprise EB never seemed to chime into any of these threads.

I'm running an OEM gasket now.

Dirt Driver

That they were. I vacuumed all the spilled coolant and oil out of the bolt holes and ran a tap through them all with just my fingers. The tap pulled crud out, but never hung up. I should also add that I used a Craftsman beam torque wrench and all the bolts came up to tension in what felt smooth and even with oiled threads.

I'm still going to go back in, though. I don't want to have to change another head gasket on this engine for 220,000 more miles.

1.) That's what I figure too.
2.) Then I'm not the only one to notice...
3.) I would have, but already had the Fel-Pro. Unlike the Rock, I saw mention of Fel-Pros lasting about like OEM, so I'm optimistic.

drmix

Havent heard of anything good about HG's from fel-pro. When I replaced mine I went OEM. Head gaskets are something you wanna cheap out on

tim a.

When I rebuilt my motor the common name for fel pro was FAIL pro.They have since redesigned the gasket from what I have been told.I am pushing 20K on my rock head gasket.EB has discussed head gaskets before.I believe he stated that there should be a lot more block resurfacing during rebuilds.I know there have been some quality questions on rock products in general.But I hope I dont have to do that job again.I will use a cometic MLS gasket if I do,or victor MLS.

Dirt Driver

1.) When did you rebuild your engine? I saw other posts mentioning a Fel-Pro redesign, but when did it happen? I'm curious to know if my gasket was made before or after that revision.

2.) Report back in another 20k or when it fails, whichever comes first.

I have and they were from searching this forum. In contrast, I haven't heard anything good about Rock and I don't have anything good to say about them either. I found multiple recommendations to use the Victor Reinz HG and it looks exactly like a Fel-Pro. Looks aren't a guarantee that they are equal, but the construction is at least similar while the Rock is nowhere near the same.

On a side note, I should have bought a lottery ticket after buttoning the engine up; I stabbed the distributor on the right tooth with the right advance on the first try. No adjusting needed. It pays to line-up and mark everything before taking it all apart.

tim a.

you can count on me hollerin if my head gasket fails.I know a lot of rock parts are hit or miss.EB says a lot of them are reboxed NPR or topline.I researched the gasket issue beforehand,and everyone said rock was about as good as any other chinese gasket,but fel pro was by far the worst.Must have been something to it for them to redesign gasket.I wish I had used an MLS gasket,but they have their own issues{cold seal doesnt seem to be a strong point}.I have to believe EB wouldnt sell rock if he had many issues with them,most of the stuff he sells has a good rep.But I guess time will tell

Dirt Driver

I found a little more information on the old and "improved" Fel-Pro gaskets. It looks like 8807 PT-1 is the old design and 26185PT is the "improved" design. I only found that out because the slip that came with mine has both numbers on it. The main number is 8807 PT-1 (uh oh?) and in small print below the application list is a star followed by "same contents as 26185PT."