ATTN: All QUALIFIED CA techs...

[kapower06]

the proper ARP head stud kit number is 202-4702....

Hope thats what you have. Also I can guarantee that a new,copper sprayed fel-pro head gasket, with either new OEM head bolts or 202-4702 ARP studs would be more then enough for what your doing with it, as long as its torqued down properly.

I have over 7k in my motor set-up not including my standalone and misc. other crap, so I dont wanna hear anout how much money you have into your motor.

Another thing. IF you had an mid 11 sec. sr20 with just a turbo upgrade, why in the hell would you sell it and get a CA, then continue to whine like a ***** when something goes wrong, saying" i wouldn't have had these problems with a sbc or sbf or sr20" or " If I would have known that I would have these problems, I wouldn't have went with the CA"

Solution: Sell your CA18det for whatever you can get out of it in its current condition. Maybe $1750-2000 maybe, Use that money to buy the "almighty" "Magical" "never have problems" sr20 and use your current turbo and NOS set-up to achieve your sought after et's.

[MeanGreenS13]

quite honestly none of you are making ANY sense...

only reason im not out there investigating on my own is that i have 2 hairline fractures in my right foot. Not very mobile at the moment.

Either way, a head gasket just doesnt LEAK for no reason...

YOU guys, and myself, have obviously done something wrong and then when you replaced it for your 2nd try and tqing down the head, you got it right... so that makes the cometic bad? GIVE ME A FRIGGIN BREAK!

when i get back on my feet ill prove you all wrong and the cometic will work. hell i wont even copper spray it! you guys are rediculous just to think it leaks JUST BECAUSE its cometic... come on...

[good morning]

which is why i REFUSE to use an oem head gasket.

Why?

[MeanGreenS13]

boost+ nitrous will eat that oem gasket alive!

[beans33]

its just odd that theres been alot of CA's that has had problems with cometic HG, including yours.... How many have had good results.....1 (dee) ?

[MeanGreenS13]

and how many of you give it more than one chance

2 dee and myself.

[beans33]

so your saying everyone who has tried using that gasket has done something wrong the first time. ? besides dee

[MeanGreenS13]

never said dee got it right the first time.... read my above statement. I said who gave it a 2nd chance... 2 of us, dee and myself.

Im saying that its not uncommon to make a mistake, and i bet about 90% of you either didnt have a perfectly clean surface, some may have had slightly warped surfaces which an oem gasket will forgive and not so much an MLS type gasket. Some may have not tq'd properly (not referring to sequence) etc etc man

theres a whole **** load of variables.

Dee informed me that my TQ specs were wrong, i shouldnt have done it in a pattern of 25. 50. 80

he said i should have gone straight to 75 ten to 85. Thats what he says he does and he hasnt had a problem.

Worth a try to loosen and retq everything no?

[beans33]

i wish the best of luck to you but its just odd how theres been numerous people that have tried the gasket and hasnt worked. I really doubt that there are that many CA enthusiast that put it on wrong the first time. Good luck with the re-build

[anumeric]

I would try re-torquing the studs and if that goes well and it still leaks, it time to break out the straight edge and feeler gauges. It's quite possible that the machine shop messed something up. Best of luck when you get back on your feet.

Wei

[Bwana]

If you're serious and want to be totally anal about your hg then go all out, o-ring it and run a copper gasket...

I just know that my STOCK hg with stock studs held fine up to 25psi. I also know that if something goes wrong with tuning or fuel I'd rather have my hg be the weak link, not my ring lands.

[MeanGreenS13]

have anyone of you actually sprayed nitrous into a boosted car? do you know what it does to cylinder pressures. i NEED a strong head gasket. lol

im going to loosen and re tq the entire head. If this machine shop ****ed up the surfaces, it would probably be a first, Justin Lauffer of Lauffer Racing engines doesnt have many failures...

[mbmbmb23]

Follow the ARP suggested torque procedures. Also there are 2 different CA part numbers floating around the web, one is the undercut studs and the other isnt (possibly the rebadged SR studs). The only "cometic" issues I've ever seen are when people use the ARP studs....which is most. How many people have you heard pop for a Cometic and "skimp" on the headstuds by using oem? I would try OEM headstuds and Cometic...then report back.

[float_6969]

If your convinced the stock HG won't take it and you're concerned about HG's, why didn't you O-ring the block and use an copper HG? Those are blow out proof?

I suppose there is some sort of correlation between the ARP bolts and the Cometic leaking, but I'm unable to think of HOW it could be correlated.

Once again, has anyone contacted Cometic regarding this?

[mbmbmb23]

I suppose there is some sort of correlation between the ARP bolts and the Cometic leaking, but I'm unable to think of HOW it could be correlated.

I'm pretty sure ARP has some weird "hand tighten, then re-tighten at a later point" torquing procedure. Combine that with the fact that many guys probably got the rebadged SR kit that bottom out and dont pull the head tight enough....

Seems to me that something needs to either stretch or squish to have a proper seal, either by using;

OEM bolts that slightly stretch when torqued and using with a Cometic

or

OEM gasket squishing down when torqued with ARP.

or

Use all OEM.

If you use ARP and Cometic, nothing wants to give when torquing....so the only thing that can happen is the ARP's not staying torqued. It's the same theory as using a lock washer w/ a bolt when you tighten it down...it creates the "squish" via stored energy in the lock washer which keeps the bolt torqued down tight. The OEM threads slightly stretching when you torque them down does the same thing. I dont think the ARP's stretch like the OEMs.

Anyhow.

-m

[float_6969]

So then why do they work just fine with the OEM? Why don't the SR guys have problems? And why do the KA guys have the same problems we do?

[ca18detgabby]

im going to loosen and re tq the entire head. If this machine shop ****ed up the surfaces, it would probably be a first, Justin Lauffer of Lauffer Racing engines doesnt have many failures...

if the head is perfect, the HG isnt the issue, then there is only one other component here that could be causing a leak............ which others have had issue with before because they received the incorrect ones.

[mbmbmb23]

So then why do they work just fine with the OEM? Why don't the SR guys have problems? And why do the KA guys have the same problems we do?

SR aluminum block adds the "squish" I'm talking about...the Cometic is very slightly "smooshed" into the aluminum of the block....which gives the dynamic seal. Steel doesn't smoosh into steel.....steel will smoosh into aluminum tho.

[bentvalves]

dooood stop bitching.

If it's SUCH a problem and the steel gasket SHOULD be fine and bla bla bla, expensive this expensive that, then just buy an SR.

those shouldnt give you any problems.

You didnt need those head bolts, and I wouldnt bat my eyes twice if a stock headgasket with copper spray held a 100shot.

Problems start to arrise when you build the **** out of motors like this.

are you shooting for 9k rpms?

whats wrong with stock connecting rods?

Is it a multilayer steel headgasket by the way?

Take it apart, drill it apart, clean it up, copper spray each and every layer individually both sides, reinstall.

Greg

[MeanGreenS13]

i love how hard headed you guys are hahah. just drop it. Its obvious none of you are going to give any REAL suggestions other than OOOO THE COMETIC IS HORRIBLE BLAH BLAH BLAH.

and to you who keep suggestion o ring the block and use copper head gasket... if you wanna come pull the motor back out for me... by my guest. If this motor coems out of the car, a small block will go in its place.

and i would bat my eyes twice if an oem gakset held up to 20+ psi and an extra 75shot of spray at 1800psi bottle pressure... that gasket would shred dude, IVE DONE IT!

[Bwana]

i love how hard headed you guys are hahah. just drop it. Its obvious none of you are going to give any REAL suggestions other than OOOO THE COMETIC IS HORRIBLE BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Let's see..

If you're serious and want to be totally anal about your hg then go all out, o-ring it and run a copper gasket...

If you want a Tomei let me know. I am in Japan, takes a week to order it to my door direct from Tomei and I have an on-base P.O. box that means I can ship it to you in a week to ten days. Three weeks and you are back in the fight. You cover the cost of the gasket and shipping I'll do the legwork, happy to help.

Mostly it's just you, not listening and ragging on everyone else.

[MeanGreenS13]

i give up on you guys.. your not reading MY comments. Im not bashing anyone, I DONT HAVE THE TIME TO DO THAT fancy ****. Im borrowing a friends car and he needs it back friday night.

[MeanGreenS13]

I just got off the phone with MIKE at cometic, he said that they have seen this problem on some engines before and usually it takes 1 good heat cycle of the engine and a re-torquing of the head to seal it up for good.

[bentvalves]

Of course someone representing Cometic told you that! DUH...

Did you use copper spray I asked, and is it a multilayer steel gasket?

Greg

[MeanGreenS13]

no i didnt and yes it is.

[JNM240]

Well i have ARP head studs and a Cometic head gasket as well. I have less than 200 miles on my rebuild/swap so far. And i believe i am leaking a small amount of coolant into the cylinders, mostly due to the hard to start issue (seems like i have to blow whatever is in the motor out before she wants to move) and some random overheating issues. But before i go tearing the head all off im going to try and re-torque the studs. IIRC when i put it on i used the FSM procedure and torque specs, but i will try Dee's suggestion to go to 75 then to 85 and hope that this fixes it. If not, i actually really like this motor and have no problem removing the head to put a OEM gasket on. I even still have the graphtech one that came with my rebuild kit.

When i installed the head studs i did notice that 2 of them sat higher than the rest, but these 2 were in the very front. Its totally possible that the oil leak u have is just cause the studs need re-torquing. Hopefully your foot will heal and you can try that before tearing it all apart. Good luck with it. I'll be sure to let you know how mine turns out.

Jason

[float_6969]

What is it that you want to hear? What is going to fix this? Don't you think if the info was out there, you'd have it already?

Lets look at what we know;-Cometic HG's have sealing problems on KA's and CA's. -They both have a iron block and aluminum head.-They don't have sealing problems on the SR. -It has an aluminum block and head. -Just about everyone who's had a Cometic that leaked tried multiple things to get it to seal, and most ultimately gave up and put an OEM HG in it. -This isn't a problem with the Japaneese MLS HG's.

Can you not see why most people would think that the HG design is flawed?

I'm not saying that the problem can't be rectified, but WHATEVER is causing the problem has to be discovered first.

I think it would be AWESOME if somebody would put the time into this, in conjunction with Cometic to fix the problem. I really don't think Cometic has been made aware of these problems, people just give up and buy an OEM style HG. If Cometic doesn't know there is a problem, how do they know to fix anything?

We're not bashing you, or ignoring you. But you kind of have to look at it from both sides.

[niscort]

you have 2 choices...

accept the gasket is at fault

or accept workmanship as error. either you got the head and deck machined to suit, or not, installed the bolts correctly thus checking they seat, correct torque procedures or not.

be stuffed if id install non oem head blots/studs with out checking the nuts with actually pull the head down.

[Not_a_sr]

Actually the KA-T problem is commonly a machining mistake made by the owner as well as the machine shop. I have fixed two already, and they do not leak nor have lost compresion. what happens on the KA is that the front cover is over lapped by the head if the bottom cover is not machined attached to the block it leaves a 5-10 thousands ledge that the head will sit on and leave the first cylinder barely sealed and leaking from the corners.

on the CA did you copper spray or engine enamel it? also torque sequence, then release them all the way then resequence them again. i have installed dozens of them and never had a leaking problem. more times then not its installer error just like with the spec clutches..

As I told you on AIM, Cometic FTL. They leak on CA's and they leak on KA's. One of the other mods has a Cometic on his KAT and it won't hold compression. Fresh rebuild, decked head and block.

Felpro FTW.

I'll edit the FAQ to note the people have problems with that HG.

Also, has anyone who's had it contacted Comeitc about it? They're a reputable company. Maybe they'll work with you to fix it. Maybe we can search around a find all of the posts on NICO where people have complained out it.

Don't trash talk the motor for crappy parts.

[Not_a_sr]

Also, pull those studs out measure them then measure the depth of the hole, measure the thread engagement, then make sure you are not bottoming out the nut on the stud, its also possible you are not seeing 80ft lbs sealing pressure,but 80 ft lbs nut to washer torque and the head is a bit loose. DO NOT goto 90-95 ft lbs the studs will break.... I know i have tested this

also how are you installing the studs into the head?

and Cometic is also correct slight leakage does tend to go away after a few good heat cycles, i have seen this on a few 7mgte's we have worked on. those leak from the rear left corner if impropperly torqued.