bhg or bad rad cap?

[thedave925]

You might get away with not having to resurface and running the MHG soon, but this is pivoting on surface quality.

GrimJack i believe ran the stocker at 14psi for 2 years? Not positive on who... Shaeff maybe.
Anyways its hard to keep the the foot out of the gas and my luck doesn't run that deep lol
Chances are you will be doing another gasket job in a matter of months with a composite.
Fluids cost too. Do the math.
OEM gasket + 2x Your time + 2x coolant + 2x oil + resurface anyways = X amount of dollars, where you could be spending time earning money or whatever.
Going the composite route will only buy you time to save for the future gasket change.

Lets hope for the best

 

[89supra7mgte]

after tearing the head off and cleaned up both head and block are flat and have mirror finish still. I am gonna chance the mhg. might get alot out of it or might not get nothing. I know its dumb to do it this way and i know the consequences of it so please nobody chime in with the "your stupid" or Your a dumbass, comments.

 

[tsupranami]

I ran 5 years at 14 psi daily driver, 50k miles on a TMS MHG w/ARP bolts. Even though I didn't grind off the notorius "rivet of death", I managed to keep it all together until the crank pulley keyway ate itself up. So long as it is flat, extremely clean, and properly torqued, all should be well.

Just remember to clean the head bolt thread holes on the block and make sure that all bolts go smoothly all the way in and out before assembly. Getting this step right is critical to proper torque on the head and creating a lasting seal.


Good Luck!

 

[89supra7mgte]

Yeah i actually just got the head on and torqued down. I spent like 3 hours cleaning head and block. I did take out two rivets that i felt would cause an issue (the front passenger side and rear passenger side) Made sure bolt holes were clean and dry along with studs. dipped nuts in 30w no moly lube, torqued in 3 steps 65-85-105. I think the rivets were what caused the po to not get a good seal on mhg like i said i only have 300 miles on engine since he sold it to me after his work. so i am hoping this works out good. if not time to build the spare which is gonna be built around high boost.

On your dd with mhg did you have your block work done?

 

[tsupranami]

No block work, it stayed in the car. I just pulled the head, cleaned everything, replaced valve guide seals (they were in the gasket kit), and torqued down with new ARP's on a Titan MHG. The car had 138,xxx miles when we did it. At 185k, we pulled the head again to repair exhaust studs, and did another MLS (Cometic). We did surface the head this time, but still forgot to remove the rivet! It went another two years (15k mi.) before the crank pulley gave up.

I think my key to success was doing a re-torque after two complete heat and cool cycles prior to driving the car.

Even though the rivet was getting the crap squished out of it, it gave up the fight early and didn't prevent the gasket from sealing.

From what I've read on the forums, I was lucky. You can see the dent in the head from the rivet, the block had similar marks.

I've tried all types of head gaskets. As far as I know these are what is available for the 7MGTE, from left to right; Cometic, HKS Stopper, Titan, OEM Toyota, FelPro, Evergreen, and RockAuto.



Only the Cometic, Titan, and HKS are worthy of installation. They are all MLS. The Toyota is the only fiber HG worth a crap, but only at stock power levels. The others are junk.

Heat cycle and re-torque, and you should be good to go...

 

[89supra7mgte]

Yeah that is my plan on this one. I am probably gonna do 2 heat cycles re-tq two more and double check. Figure being everything is straight on block and head and just a few hundred miles since machine i should be in the clear for atleast 50k. My engine is modded runs 15psi and 371hp/416tq and think that is what took out my other gasket, along with quality of it. But this one is cleaned straight and torqued wish me luck, lots of it.