Cosmic's Winter Pulsar Project

gtir_woody wrote:Nice and fresh

Cheers Woody,  
However up close there's some hairline cracks from the spark plug to exhaust valve, but ive seen these on most Ali heads.
Its been pressure tested and vacuum tested twice so should be alright.

Cosmic73 wrote:

robd wrote:why you putting a cometic gasket on?

It came in the gasket pack i bought from Erics,

id put it in the bin ive had loads of problems with them also know loads of mates that have had problems too and not just on gtirs

You've spent all this time and money in this engine & project and you are about to use a head gasket that is widely known for its failings in our community?

Get yourself something decent before you get that head bolted down mate...

Second that why do people spend hard earned cash then make a known weak area where it will fail. Why waste time mikes time and your money. Get a good quality gasket for it then you know it will last

robd wrote:

Cosmic73 wrote:

robd wrote:why you putting a cometic gasket on?

It came in the gasket pack i bought from Erics,

id put it in the bin ive had loads of problems with them also know loads of mates that have had problems too and not just on gtirs

The forums in the US all have +ve reviews for Cometic HG's.
Bare in my i'm running stock turbo at stock boost with stock head bolts so i don't need a gold plated Cossie HG,

I think it should be fine on stock power mate, but all the comments above are correct, its proven that alot of people have had problems with them on an R

its not like you'll turn the key and the engine will drop its guts all over the floor though

I agree,
But i bet you all the issues where because these were running at far higher cylinder pressures then the gasket was designed for??
Cometic is a stock gasket, designed to run on a stock SR20DET engine and from what i've heard from our US chums it should last years.

Cometic on decent finished block & head with oem bolts should be fine for lowish boost use.
Not my first choice but most bad reviews came from mating them with arp head studs or poor surface finish & building, seen a lot of det engines using them for quite a few years without bother !
MLS gaskets like spot on flat & smooth refinished head & block. for road use & sensible boost decent oem style composite works well & tolerates surface imperfections better.
Bit like everyone slated par gearkits because one cock in uk couldn't build it right in three or so attempts :-)

Appreciate you're input Mr B,

My Head is as flat as a Southern pint.
I've cut no corners on the build, fitted new everything even chains and sprockets, inspected everything, cleaned everything, took my time, assembled and torqued everything to the letter of the manual.
Risk can't get lower than this.

If I start upping the boost in a year or two, then yes I'll fit a HG that's designed for it, but for now i think the Cometic should be fine.

A case of fit it and be dammed,

Like a say not my first choice as prefer stopper design & sizes of apexi & tomei, but huge amount of det's out there on cometic & quite a few canadian 54c's used them okay when paired with oem head bolts .
Block needs be good too & many don't surface or prep block good enough.
Just do your best mate, clean all head bolt threads & block bolt bores & test thread them in block before fitting head, I use the top limit torque for final torque & angular of 95 not less, after step a & b I leave it good 8 to 12hrs before commencing to step c & then final torquing, also light application of moly grease on threads & bolt head flank/washer good
think main issue with cometic is design not so good at handling det issues .
Decent effort in fitting & car mapping & it should be fine even at likes of 1.3bar !
Interesting see how you get on with it & will be nice test condition to see if cometic is total junk for 54c or not lol . I will put in a prayer for you next time I pass my local temple lol :-) good luck & buddha speed mr cosmic

Thanks Mr B, I'll be doing  a bit of praying myself  

Do you know what this 'no need to re-torque' the Cometic means?  
http://www.burtonpower.com/cometic-head-gasket-040-88mm-nissan-sr20det-pulsar-gtir-c4543-040.html

I would imagine that means the due to head gasket compression? however with new head studs I would be checking them after a period time, thats just my guess though

That why I do it nissan way with good time span before cracking off & doing final torque steps.
Leaving gasket compressed over time allows it to settle in so when apply the final 2 torque steps they are far more accurate & less likely loose clamping load, MLS don't compress anything like composite but small details done right can pay you back big time ... I find the method gives best chance of gasket seating & bolts torqued to spec that suits them .

That makes sense to me,

Gasket fitted


Head fitted,  


Tightened bolts to stages A & B, leaving them over night like Mr B says,

Cosmic73 wrote:I agree,
But i bet you all the issues where because these were running at far higher cylinder pressures then the gasket was designed for??
Cometic is a stock gasket, designed to run on a stock SR20DET engine and from what i've heard from our US chums it should last years.

it was originally marketed as an upgrade head gasket so higher cylinder pressure wouldnt matter
at the end of the day its your car you can fit what you like i just asked why you were fitting it as it has been know to be problematic

cometic did do design changes on it's MLS gaskets some time back which they said improved sealing. Would of thought you have newest design since purchased through erics in US & I don't think they would push the gaskets in sales if extremely unreliable.
Thousands been used on det lumps in USA & Canada.
How good current gasket is I would not know as tomei & apexi are decent & good price options here, It not an R owners top choice but seems you had already bought one you might as well find out how good it is :-)
At least you not using arp head studs lol
Not end of world if do end up changing it !, just a few extra brews needed  
Interesting see how you do & hopefully no other gremlins when come to run in time.
Out of interest how much is a cometic from erics direct ordered ?

Not sure how much the individual HG was but i paid $167 for an entire top end gasket set.
I reckon the cost of the HG would be a very large part of that,

^ you had decent exchange rate back when you got them too so whole set was £110, I would say HG is around £70ish, If works out long term then you done well really .
GBP dropping like a asian tart at moment so would of cost you much more know for your erics order .

This was refurbished by Midland turbos way back when i first started my project and sat in my garage since.
Just unwrapped it all and wow, looks like new.
I cant believe this is the same turbo i sent them

^ shiny turbo's make me drool more than looking at a pretty girl lol.
Standard bearing or uprated.
You want consider dump the original metal exhaust manifold & do a neat heat wrap in charcoal/black, Rob IOW done this on his & makes turbo & cast manifold look superb as well as being functional.
Have a dig through his winter build thread as think pics in that.

Its always a good feeling looking at a fresh turbo ready to be fitted. Makes you all warm and fuzzy inside mate

Makes you warmer and fuzzier when the little gems been fitted

Mr B wrote:^ shiny turbo's make me drool more than looking at a pretty girl lol.
Standard bearing or uprated.
You want consider dump the original metal exhaust manifold & do a neat heat wrap in charcoal/black, Rob IOW done this on his & makes turbo & cast manifold look superb as well as being functional.
Have a dig through his winter build thread as think pics in that.

I used to have my manifold wrapped and when it rained it would get wet through the bonnet vents. Then it would steam the water off for the next 30 minutes or so when I next drove the car.
All you could see was the steam when driving or sat in trafic in a morning.
Even on cold nights the damp would settle in the wrap and cause it to steam off when started up.
Looked like the engine was on fire haha

Stu wrote:

Mr B wrote:^ shiny turbo's make me drool more than looking at a pretty girl lol.
Standard bearing or uprated.
You want consider dump the original metal exhaust manifold & do a neat heat wrap in charcoal/black, Rob IOW done this on his & makes turbo & cast manifold look superb as well as being functional.
Have a dig through his winter build thread as think pics in that.

I used to have my manifold wrapped and when it rained it would get wet through the bonnet vents. Then it would steam the water off for the next 30 minutes or so when I next drove the car.
All you could see was the steam when driving or sat in trafic in a morning.
Even on cold nights the damp would settle in the wrap and cause it to steam off when started up.
Looked like the engine was on fire haha

Sounds quite cool actually, a fire breathing demon for an engine