Fel Pro SD Head Gaskets

[neophile_17]

Hello,

I need to do the head gaskets on my 3400. Apparently a bad heater core combined with a track day can do these things. Anyway I've seen a couple threads on here where what I believe are the regular Fel Pro gaskets got derisive reviews. Has anyone had good or bad experience with the SD version. It seems to be the only performance or extreme duty head gasket available. Thanks for sharing your experience.

~sam

Edit- Unfortunately the WOT-Tech MLS gaskets are out of budget.

[19Cutlass94]

Ive had the regular Fel-pro's on my car for a couple years since I built the motor and no issues to report. Its mostly in the way you torque the head down. Failure to do so properly will cause a headgasket to fail before its due time.

[bob442]

GM grafite gaskets are appreantly the way to go. can be had from newer 3400's from a dealer. no personal experiance, but its compairing apples to oranges when they are side by side.

[AaronGTR]

I used the GM graphite gasket for years on my engine with no real issues. I did end up finally blowing them last year, but they were on a highly stressed engine. I'm currently on a set of the fel-pro SD gaskets right now. No issues to report so far, but I haven't really pushed them yet either to see if they'll fail (and I hope they never do). They sealed up just fine though, and they definitely seem better quality than the standard fel-pros, although I'm sure those would work fine for a daily driver.

[3400-95-Modified]

I killed two sets of Fel-Pros on my Nitrous setup, I'm now at 3yrs on a set of stock GM gaskets with no issues, granted I have the head studs now too...

[neophile_17]

Thanks for the reply. I keep meaning to stop by a GM dealer and price out their head gaskets. Good to know that the FelPro SD will work in a performance application. Endurance racing is a little different than daily driving

~sam

[3400-95-Modified]

Good to know that the FelPro SD will work in a performance application

I disagree with that statement, I'll never use SD felpro gaskets again.

[neophile_17]

Did you have to buy the whole kit or just the head gaskets? I can't seem to nail down part numbers and it'd be a lot easier if I could buy them from Scoggin Dickey.

~sam

[3400-95-Modified]

GM Gaskets I used on my build and Roberts 3400/3500 setup, can be bought individually from a dealership

[90BlueZ]

Blew a set of felpro too on my turbo motor. Never blew a set of GM graphite

[neophile_17]

You convinced me to go the GM route. I should have put more faith in the list to come up with a part number. I could have saved $30. I already ordered them and I guess somebody has to keep the Buick dealership alive.

~sam

[neophile_17]

So I have two 12589907 head gaskets in hand. To double check I googled the 2005 torque specs and they appear to be different. This is what I found.

Head Bolts
Step one 37 ft lbs then tignten 120 degrees more

I don't expect that there's a big difference between that and 44 ft lbs + 95 degrees but out of curiosity what have others done?

~sam

[3400-95-Modified]

I have head studs so I torque to the spec of those bolts... I would say it depends on which bolts you get as well as gaskets your using, so I would probably go with the 05 spec.