inline 6 one piece head gasket

I would like to hear from those of you who have had some experiance with the one piece head gaskets. pros cons torque settings etc.
Also do they have bronze fire rings or steel? Any history of leaking. Being an old school kinda guy these head gaskets have always intrigued me. Now that they are 20 years old or so there should be some history out there, if anyone is willing to talk about it.
Ciao,
FGM

 

I purchased one several years ago but after I laid it on the engine I did not use it. The fit around the cylinders was not accurate and the flow of water around the head and cylinders is restricted. I have always used the original gasket system and have never had one fail. You need to take care with the installation and make sure the head has the retaining grove but it makes good engineering sense. Race car engine builders go to great expense to modify engines to use a fire ring for high performance engines. Also do search as this subject has been discussed at lenght before. I do believe Jacque has improved the design over the one I purchased several years ago but I still believe the original design is better. If you use the original design make sure the rubber gasket supplied is the right thickness. MIE is suppling the kit with a Viton gasget that I believe is a good improvement and is the correct thickness.

 

The old single piece head gasket did not work at all. The newly designed singe piece gasket manufactured by "Best Gasket" is 100% bullet proof.I have sold over 150.Not even one was ever returned.I have not received any complaint. I have used it on a 3500gt that now has 10k miles since it's last rebuilt! I drove the crap out of the car to Monterrey twice and up and down the treacherous roads to Lake arrowhead at an altitude of 6000 feet. Not once did the car overheat. Do not use the old ones as they were not design to correctly flow the water around the head studs.
The new gasket has the manufacturer's company name and part number stamped on its side. 748 or 750 depending on the application,Gt vs GTI. This gasket is only intended to be used on the early 3.5 and 3.7L engines.Do not attempt to use this gasket on the 4.0L cars.If you need references of people that have used it please contact me off line.

Here is a video of a 3500gt engine I rebuilt with the single piece gasket.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTXSWzBLAxQ[/ame]

Jacques

 

I have to agree with Jacques on the merits of the one piece gasket. I have rebuilt 3 Maserati V-8 motors, a 5000 GT motor and 2 3500 motors, all having used his one piece gaskets and have never had a problem. Every time, I have pulled a head off of a 3500 engine with the fire rings and perimeter gasket on it, it was a mess and always revealed problems of coolant and oil leakage. Granted, these old gaskets were inproperly installed during earlier engine work but they are very difficult to get get it right and fragile. Best Gasket makes the correct one for the Maseratis and Cometic make excellent one piece gaskets for the Ferraris. Patrick Ottis has developed these for the 250 motors. Just my 2 cents.

Chris Rose