[the benz master]

Ok so i was currious if i could get away saving a few bucks buying one of those chinese head gaskets on ebay... i was thinking "it's just a damn gasket, how could they go wrong about it".

Boy was i surprised how stupid/wrong/ignorant/careless these chinese could be. The Gasket shape and thickness is spot on. Everything else is wrong.

1- stamping (embossing) thickness is pretty irregular and some spots on the gasket is almost flat. This means tha there will not be enough deformation/pressure from the gasket to seal properly on those areas

2- No coatings on the gasket. (Oem has a very thin coat of sealer that looks like black paint) Meaning that the gasket will not seal fluids at all because aluminum on steel will not create a fluid proof seal. This even leads to the gasket having some rust on it which again, will prevent a good seal.

3- the embossing pattern is incorrect. The embossed patern goes on the wrong side of the head bolts, which means that you have high chances of getting coolant in the crankcases trough the head bolts. The oil return galleries are not even embossed so they will most likely seep oil on the exhaust header. This is most likely to create an "end of the world" type situation where smoke and burned oil smell comes out of the bike or worst, bike catches on fire. And besides, there is about only half of the OEM gaskets embossings on the chinese crap so you can be assured it will NEVER EVER seal properly.


So i wanted to share my engineering analysis of these cheap gaskets to prevent people from waisting their money on those, having leaking problems or worst, destroy a good bottom end because of coolant flowing into the crankcase.

 

[JRancher]

I'm four months in having a Chinese head gasket. No issues. I used blue hylomar on it as recommended by a bunch of people. Gasket looked good, everything lined up.

Perhaps you just got a Friday arvo gasket.

 

[the benz master]

Well in this case i guess it's the hylomar that creates the seal. You would most likely have got similar results just using hylomar on your old honda gasket.

 

[Aduro]

I shake my head at anyone who thinks about using Chinese, no name, engine internals. Honestly, a genuine head gasket is $60. Either your time is worth nothing to you and you are willing to do the job over again if it fails (and doesn't ruin your engine), or you have too much disposable income and are willing to pay someone to do it twice (but are to cheap to pay for oem parts??).

Other gaskets such as case gaskets and the like, which are simply cut gasket paper or preformed gasket goo are usually fine and I would use aftermarket. But hey, people can do what they like to their own machines.

 

[the benz master]

I shake my head at anyone who thinks about using Chinese, no name, engine internals. Honestly, a genuine head gasket is $60

Being in canada, i have only ever found one OEM Honda head gasket for sale from japan on ebay and it ended up at like 130-140$ with shipping.

if you can sell me a head gasket for 60$ i'll take 2 of them.

 

[Aduro]

You should email a few of the dealerships here in Aus and see if they will ship in an airbag. Action motorcycles do Honda (if they are still in business) as do Sydney City Motorcycles. Search Honda dealerships in NSW and get some quotes.