Gasket recommendations.

[Meghan]

Hello everyone,

1996 Toyota Tacoma 2.4L

I am back at working on my Head Gasket job. I bought a FelPro kit, however, I have read horrible reviews on this brand. Does anyone recommend a better brand?
Also, I am willing to buy OEM if they are decently priced. The FELPRO kit had a lot of unneeded parts that came along with it as well.
What I need is:
Head gasket
Exhaust pipe circular gaskets (2)- I think the kit only came with one!!
Exhaust (1) and intake (2) gaskets
Maybe valve cover gasket
EGR gasket(s)- I dont know if I need 1 or 2 honestly. I only see one old copper gasket

If I do buy OEM, should I call a toyota dealership? Or is there a website thats better?
I live in NC btw.

Thanks B)

Topic

[Mike]

Try looking here, I just found it now. You can order from them or use the illustrations to help you order from your local dealer. You can use it to look up part numbers and then just give the list of numbers and quantities to make it easy to buy local and get what you need by looking the parts up yourself at your leisure instead of under pressure at the parts counter or on the phone.

http://toyotaoempartsworld-px.rtrk.com/parts/1996/Toyota/Tacoma/DLX?siteid=215233&vehicleid=69948&diagram=F809063&diagramCallOut=3

I wouldn’t use felpro on imports unless I was stuck and it had to be done. They will frequently replace a multi-layered-steel (MLS) type gasket with that silvered cardboard junk with all the little dimples in it. That high quality green/bluish compressed polymer gasket type found on oil/water pump housings, oil filter and coolant flanges, and crank seal housings is almost always replaced with a far cheaper fibrous-type gasket that comes apart much messier the next time around.

Victor Rienz makes aftermarket gaskets out the correct types of respectable materials, but not for all cars. Maybe the same kind of good aftermarket gaskets can be found for your car, likely from a Toyota aftermarket parts specialist company, if there is one.

[hondaguy453]

+1 ^^ I use that site. Nothing beats OEM parts.

[Gareth Randall]

[quote=”hondaguy453″ post=147377]+1 ^^ I use that site. Nothing beats OEM parts.[/quote]

Well, when you think about it OEM parts are just parts from specific aftermarket suppliers in a different box and with a massive markup… the manufacturer puts out its spec for a given part and usually accepts the lowest bid that meets that spec. Just about every brand of car has issues with OEM parts that are known to be under-designed or too cheaply made, and there are usually aftermarket parts that correct those problems.

I’ve only ever heard good things about Fel-Pro, and I have their gaskets all over my Jeep. Never had a problem. Maybe they’re not so good with Toyota though.

[EricTheCarGuy]

OE is always best, but I think you’ll be fine with the FelPro kit. In fact, they may make the OE kit and rebrand it.

A big part of a head gasket job is making sure you prep the surfaces correctly and torque things down where they need to be torqued.

Good luck with the job and let us know if you run into any trouble.

[Author]

Replies