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Oem head gasket or aftermarket which is better?

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by johnnychimpo, Jan 12, 2021.

  1. johnnychimpo

    johnnychimpo Active Member

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    Oem head gasket or aftermarket which is better?
     
  2. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    OEM, all day, every day.

    But I have used Stone and Fel-Pro without issues on cars that were being sold/traded soon.
     
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  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Toyota offers a gasket kit, includes head gasket plus every other gasket, seal and O-ring you might need, in the course of changing the head gasket. I believe there’s another kit for a full engine rebuild.
     
  4. ozmatt

    ozmatt Active Member

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    the OEM gasket fails often enough although usually at quite a few miles! and yes i do realise design flaws in exhaust gas cooling system amongst other things are partially to blame for it ..

    if it happened to me i would want to try a known trusted quality aftermarket gasket brand
     
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  5. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Saddly, there really aren't any "trusted quality aftermarket" anything anymore.
    It's all made in china. At least 50% of the "quality" is gone.
    You'd be wise to use Toyota parts on Toyota. If you have a mazda, us mazda....etc....

     
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  6. johnnychimpo

    johnnychimpo Active Member

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    would you happen to know what torque specs are needed for the harmonic balancer bolt
     
  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Something like 140 ft/lb IIRC. It should be in one of the Repair Manual excerpt pdf's here:

    Info on head gasket rebuild, bundle of repair manual excerpts:

    Blown Head gasket rebuild....@297k | Page 15 | PriusChat

    Also, part number for Toyota gasket kit and head bolts in in this attachment. There's 2 kits I believe, one a bit more complete, for a full engine overhaul. This one might be the full kit, a bit more expensive.
     

    Attached Files:

  8. ozmatt

    ozmatt Active Member

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    True that, the oem gasket is probably made in china

    Do you guys have access to permaseal gaskets? They still claim to be designed and manufactured in Japan and have a reasonable name behind them

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
  9. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    Well, all the parts I've gotten from Toyota, have be made in Japan.
    And if the head gasket kits are made in china, I would say they are probably made better.
    It's the "copy" stuff china makes for other than OEM, cheaper material probably...

    Hard to go wrong with Toyota parts for your Toyota though.
     
  10. ozmatt

    ozmatt Active Member

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    You would be surprised at some things, i am not sure if the video was rigged or not, and i know its not a gasket but i was watching reviews of oil filters yesterday and the toyota genuine filter looked terrible, it was damn near the worse one out of half dozen the guy cut open
     
  11. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Gen 3 ((unless you convert it to spin-on) has a paper element filter in a permanent housing. I’ve done the conversion, so am all ears. :)
     
  12. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    It's ALWAYS Buyer Beware!
    So YOU do the research and YOU decide who's telling the truth.
    Then YOU spend YOUR money on whatever manufacturer you decide to buy.
    Because YOU are the one responsible for what you do. And YOU will be the one
    that pays the price if the product is cheap crap.
     
  13. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I figure Toyota sets the bar high on products bearing their name, accordingly stick with them. Appreciate they usually come from a third party. Might be fools paradise, who knows.
     
  14. johnnychimpo

    johnnychimpo Active Member

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    I went with Toyota kit.
    How do lock the harmonic balancer so I can torque it down. If you mess up the cams how do you realighn so timing chain is set properly.
     
  15. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The repair manual probably shows a specific Special Service Tool for holding the pulley while torquing, but those are the kinds of things that can frequently be improvised. Sometimes looking at the illustration in the manual of the SST in action will give ideas.

    The bits in the manual about the timing chain markings cover the subject pretty well. If you see some verbiage in there about turning the crankshaft 40 degrees BTDC or so, while doing something with the cams, then turning it back, the unspoken part is that they want you to avoid swinging any pistons past TDC in cylinders where valves might be down. I think.
     
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  16. ozmatt

    ozmatt Active Member

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    Mendel this is the video that threw me off, not that i just "believe" all youtube videos it did make me wonder



    Nothing worse than when you shell out for oem just to find out the chinese crap you could have bought for half the price is actually heaps better!, i wont go on any further about oil filters in this thread and sorry to the op, its just an example of oem vs ** (if this guy is for real!)
     
  17. rjparker

    rjparker Tu Humilde Sirviente

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    Hard to believe three Toyota filters with the same part numbers are all different in this video. I would suspect knock offs are being sold as genuine. I have heard it is a common practice by some ebay and amazon sellers.
     
  18. ozmatt

    ozmatt Active Member

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    yes you are probably correct rjparker, a bit like the ongoing iridium spark plug saga
     
  19. James Finch

    James Finch Junior Member

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    So this video from Riviera Auto, a former Toyota Tech, notes that Mahle is Toyota's head gasket manufacturer? At least I think was in this video and is noted in the comment reply to @eddiepadilla1078 where stated:

    "The benefits to using the Mahle Kit is I found out that Mahle is the company who actually makes the factory head gaskets for toyota you can get them cheaper."



    Anyone else aware of and know if is true or, if otherwise, who makes the headgasket and/or head gasket kit?
     
    #19 James Finch, Aug 1, 2023
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2023
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  20. taxidriver50005

    taxidriver50005 Active Member

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    OEM for trouble free installation, be a shame to do all that work only for gasket to let you down a couple of months later... You'd be left wondering if it was you.... Gasket or something else.

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
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