Bearings and Gaskets: Aftermarket or OEM?

[iruyle]

Got a Lemons car in the works. It doesnt have to be fast, it only has to survive for two days.
I have the 7MGE motor taken apart and it's time to do rings and bearings and gaskets, etc.
There are Ebay kits all over the place for mains and rod bearings, gasket kits, even some that have everything up to and including pistons. I have always been an OEM guy when it comes to mechanicals but the difference here is I am NOT trying to enhance performance and I'm definitely not trying to get another 100k out of this motor. All I need it to do is last about 1000 miles without hemorraging.
That said, the Ebay kits are typically 100-150. A teammate has a relative working at O'Reilly's and rings, bearings and gaskets from them would be ~$400. A reliable engine shop quoted 170 just for the OEM rings, God knows what everything else would run...
The trick is not spending a ton on a car that might get wiped out 2 laps into the race but not going so cheap as to end up with unuseable junk.
Opinions? Aftermarket alternatives anyone has used? Things to avoid?

 

[Zumtizzle]

Those cheap Headgaskets are known to be a failure point for other cars (never heard of a cheap HG blowing on a 7M), but for a lemons car I wouldn't worry about it, and use those with a Good set of Stock bolts with Motor oil on the threads and 70 ft lbs of torque.

As for bearings more likely they're King or ACL and i'll use those with confidence.

 

[BlackDevilSupra]

....
The trick is not spending a ton on a car that might get wiped out 2 laps into the race but not going so cheap as to end up with unuseable junk.
Opinions? Aftermarket alternatives anyone has used? Things to avoid?

And that is the tricky balance. I'll try to avoid the black / graphite impinged gasket type stuff because from what I've seen, they form a semi-adhesive bond to the mating surfaces. This will be a terrible situation if you're trying to do a speedy on track repair.
I have a genuine OEM head gasket for sale if you're interested: http://www.supramania.com/forums/sh...Diaphragm-PP-OEM-Head-Gasket-CT26-OEM-Gaskets

 

[iruyle]

And that is the tricky balance. I'll try to avoid the black / graphite impinged gasket type stuff because from what I've seen, they form a semi-adhesive bond to the mating surfaces. This will be a terrible situation if you're trying to do a speedy on track repair.
I have a genuine OEM head gasket for sale if you're interested: http://www.supramania.com/forums/sh...Diaphragm-PP-OEM-Head-Gasket-CT26-OEM-Gaskets

Thanks, might hit you up for the oem hg.

 

[Poodles]

OEM HG is exactly what he's describing.

As a general rule, I like OEM gaskets best (as several of the gaskets in the cheap gaskets sets are plain wrong or of the wrong material), but you're on a budget.

The tricky ones are the throttle body gasket (hole is tiny and needs to be cut bigger), exhaust manifold gasket (doesn't like to seal and get blown out easily), and the EGR cooler gasket which is paper in the cheap sets and is a metalised material from the OEM.

Bearings, OEM is great, but expensive as hell. Cheaper to get aftermarket and get things machined for them.