Head gasket?

[mikebloco]

I know OEM is always best but is anyone running a beck/arnley with success? I'm going to stay away from elring and VR

And what valve spring compressor works well for the m20. I just broke my old one

[aegul44]

VR sucks for sure. I would stick with OEM. Get it right at one time. By the way I have no first person experience with arnley.

[jeffnhiscars]

There's nothing wrong w elring and beck arnley is a reseller so you don't know where they are from.

[ttrousdell]

Ive had no problems with VR products. I have a craftsman valve spring compressor that has worked well for me.

[digger]

find a goetze head gasket its cheaper than dealer but better quality than the others....

[noid]

Just get OEM, do it right the first time, this is the most critical gasket on your car.

[SkiFree]

"Doing it right" means stop worrying about the brand of headgasket (I've seen all work well and all fail) and make sure the head has been checked out by a machinist and likely resurfaced.

Seen too many people blame headgasket failure on a brand rather than point the finger at themselves.

.... and here's a good valvespring compressor (been using one for a couple years now).
http://www.amazon.com/OTC-4572-Large...ing+compressor

[mikebloco]

The only Goetze one I could find was a complete set that was $100 more than the BMW HG set......Why is it that the VR and Elring HG's look the exact same. I replaced the HG on my friends 86 325e with a fel pro a year and a half ago and he's put at least 30K on it since then as a parts delivery guy. I've done at least a dozen head gasket jobs all with fel pro HG's I don't know why I'm second guessing myself now.

[Cabriolet]

I always get BMW head bolts and head gaskets. 13 engines 0 failures. the bolts and gasket cost me $95. not really that expensive if you ask me. considering it's only gonna save you 10-15 bucks to cheap out with inferior parts. for my cars im now running ARP studs just for shits and giggles. but there is no reason in my book to not just run the BMW parts for this job.

[Cabriolet]

I always get BMW head bolts and head gaskets. 13 engines 0 failures. the bolts and gasket cost me $95. not really that expensive if you ask me. considering it's only gonna save you 10-15 bucks to cheap out with inferior parts. for my cars im now running ARP studs just for shits and giggles. but there is no reason in my book to not just run the BMW parts for this job.

[packratbimmer]

Well said and worth repeating Cabriolet

[modernist]

+1 on Elring. Their gasket set is excellent. Genuine BMW head bolts are like $25 for the set, no reason not to buy them.

[digger]

some parts of the engine aren't worth cheaping out on

[5Toes]

"Doing it right" means stop worrying about the brand of headgasket (I've seen all work well and all fail) and make sure the head has been checked out by a machinist and likely resurfaced.

Seen too many people blame headgasket failure on a brand rather than point the finger at themselves.

.... and here's a good valvespring compressor (been using one for a couple years now).
http://www.amazon.com/OTC-4572-Large...ing+compressor

agreed. the OTC vlave spring compressor works awesome, I have one myself too. Just did an m20 with complete Elring gasket set, no problems or seepage or anything yet. did use VR headbolts though.