Fel-Pro or OEM Oil Pan Gasket

[Vikas]

Doesn't it really depends upon the OEM? How about Toyota or Honda gaskets compared with Fel-Pro?

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: EricF
Felpro is known to engineer any OEM issues out of the gasket design.
the biggest one is the GM v6 intake manifold gasket.. GM used plastic.. Felpro used rubber. the 2EHA doesn't affect the rubber.



Also: Failure-prone Honda head gaskets re-engineered in a multi-layer steel (MLS) format long before Honda made them available, Chrysler 2.0/2.4 head gaskets in the late 90s- MLS option available from Fel-Pro before from Chrysler. Single-piece oil pan gaskets for various American smallblock V8s rather than the awkward, leak-prone 3-piece designs before the OEMs switched over. And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: EricF
Felpro is known to engineer any OEM issues out of the gasket design.
the biggest one is the GM v6 intake manifold gasket.. GM used plastic.. Felpro used rubber. the 2EHA doesn't affect the rubber.



Just a slight correction here- The old style GM gaskets were a plastic (nylon 66) framework with a (silicone?) rubber tracer around the ports. The revised Fel-Pro gaskets (they also produce the old style too) have a steel frame and a different type of rubber at the ports that is thicker/wider too. This helps better seal aluminum heads and intakes that have some corrosion pitting.

 

[tommygunn]

Wow, it only failed in 5 years? WEAK!!

Fel-Pro is supposed to be good. I heard good things about Magnum brand as well.

One thing though, stay away from Victor Reinz. Although they make OE gaskets for many European cars, the Victor Reinz gaskets for American cars are TERRIBLE. Their Japanese applications are usually reboxed OEM.

 

[nthach]

I've used Fel-Pro for valve covers on a Nissan VG30E, and they seemed to be better than OEM. However, I'm disappointed with their Toyota applications and will use OEM only for Toyota stuff.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Doesn't it really depends upon the OEM? How about Toyota or Honda gaskets compared with Fel-Pro?

I always hear mixed reviews when a Fel-pro replaced a well designed OEM gasket. One time I had to replace valve cover gaskets in a Ford 5.4 SOHC with Fel-Pro. The Fel-pro replacement gasket wouldn't stay in the valve cover groove, I had to try multiple times to put the valve cover on without having the gasket come off. The OEM gaskets never had that problem.