Best MLS head gasket to use.

[dash]

it appears nissan added those sturdy braces, not so much for the weight of the intake, but rather the heavy exhaust manifold/turbo assembly just hanging there off the other side of the cylinder head, with a vibrating exhaust/downpipe connected.

two solid short braces in the injector area, plus the big "Y" shaped brace, would seem as the most logical place to "stiffen" up the head/block as an assy.The "Y" was never intended to "pull down" anything, it triangulates instead.

Bracing on the exhaust side would have heat issues. Also, notice how nissan deliberately have big holes in the exhaust manifold flange to clear mounting stud in the head ? They did that for a reason too.

[KEMP]

i know they are there for a reason.

but for any motor to need braces to hold the head in place, is just a horrible design. that should never be needed to help with that.

especiallt with arp studs.

[boost_boy]

i know they are there for a reason.

but for any motor to need braces to hold the head in place, is just a horrible design. that should never be needed to help with that.

especiallt with arp studs.

What's so special about your engine that makes mine not comparable? If your engine don't have the bracket don't feel bad because mine don't either. As a matter of fact, I always take them off because they are in the way and is just plain 'ol worthless in my opinion. Regardless of what nissan engineers decided to use the bracket for, it has been proven to be of no real use or major significance.

You guys can argue all you want and attempt to prove theories from others' experience, but I've purchased used cometics from folks on this forum and thrown them in CAs that only got a head job and the deck cleaned-up by me and they work just fine with no leakage. I'm very sure there's others using the cometic gasket on the CA without any leakage or issues, but you won't hear from most because they have no issues.

If some of you continue to be hard-headed, you're going to find yourselves short of getting help from people who have more than enough experiences with this motor to be able to testify. Pay attention to your torqueing sequences and tight-fitting head bolt channels and your problems will go away in the headgasket arena. Good luck and I'm done on this topic.

Dee

[sjbsuperman1425]

it basically comes down to this, if the head and block surfaces are correct and straight as can be, the only other place to go is the torqueing. I think alot of people are making head gaskets WAAAYY more complicated then they are.

now it MIGHT be different for someone to have a leaking Cometic, then throw a Trust one on and have it be ok, but chances are, its human error anyway that might have been corrected the second time around..