Victor Reinz strikes again

[Ding250SX]

Popped the hood on my 325i today and noticed i have oil puking out of the head gasket between cylinders 3 and 4. This makes me especially angry because i just installed a fresh cylinder head less than 5000 miles ago. I used VR head gasket set along with VR bolts. After doing some digging around here i saw a lot of people with the same problem.

So what's the deal with these things? Is it the gasket itself that is inferior or do head bolts stretch? I saw a couple of stories about bent VR headbolts but mine were just fine.

[Mushroom Stew]

Some people say they are fine but it is absolutely necessary to make sure the head is true/flat. Others like you say run into problems with them. That was enough for me to go with a Goetze headgasket. I think an OE one from the dealership is probably the best way to go.

[digger]

Yeah you always have to question how flat and clean the head is given there are literally thousands sold and majority don't have issues. And same for the block. There are distinct design advantages with the better gaskets though. I feel oem is worth the money for the hg because it's not a 5min job to change it. For other gaskets it matters a lot less.

[ForcedFirebird]

I have built many m20's, even when the block and head were milled, the VR gaskets leaked. I rebuilt a lot of heads for locals, know for a fact the heads were true, they didn't heed my advise and they leaked. I personally stopped using them a long time ago when my own car leaked, and a customer car did as well. I thought maybe I did something wrong, re-did the job and same thing. Oil at the corner of the head under #1 exhaust port. Replaced one with OEM BMW, the other with a Goetze and neither are leaking to this day.

Never had a problem with the bolts, even if they were "bent" they are TTY which means they rely on stretching to hold the head down, not how true they are.

We tend to purchase the VR or Elring gasket kits and just not use the HG itself. The valve cover gaskets are also sub-par so we coat them with with a thin layer of elastromeric.

One time a VR gasket did not leak on us, but the car was only run for 1 partial 14hr race(engine blew due to a radiator fail after driver met the tire wall). The gasket was heavily coated with copper spray, and only used it because it was late at night to make a race. We have the VR gaskets in the bin to use for clearance checking when assembling engines (they pile up since we don't use them from the kits).

I will say, though, all the other car MFGR's that use VR gaskets get the luxury of having decent gaskets - they even make an extra wide fire ring version for turbo Porsche, but we got the shaft on m20's. Another thing to note is the VR, Elring, FelPro also have the hole for the front-most alignment dowel punched too small. That was the very first thing I noticed on my first m20 HG job - and the MLS companies used this gasket s a template, so they are the same way - just like the oval hole that covers the middle bolt holes - they should be separate from the oil return hole. OEM and Goetze both have these holes separated, and both have TWO extra thick silicone stripes (one black, one red). All the rest have a very thin silicon bead (red only). OEM and Goetze are also noticeably higher quality when holding them in your hand - they just feel thicker/sturdier.

[Ding250SX]

I started working at a BMW dealer shortly after i replaced my cylinder head. I'll definitely use my employee discount and go OEM this time. How do you feel about copper spray for added security?

[ForcedFirebird]

They aren't overly expensive to begin with. Should be really affordable with your discount! With the better gaskets, shouldn't need copper spray, but it doesn't hurt IMO. You will notice there's a copper layer on them, whereas the cheap gaskets are dark brown with only silicone.