I see some of you recommenced best gaskets.  I have been using Fel Pro gaskets for years without problems.  Best gaskets look good, but they are double the price.  Are they worth the money for a stock street Y Block rebuild?

I've used the BEST on the last two Y's. I've used Fel-Pro in the past without any problems either. Years ago I liked to use Detroit gaskets.

A lot of times NOS is the way to go for engine parts. Usually. Is there any reason generally that this wouldn't be the case with even a gasket set? There aren't any shelf life issues with gaskets are there?? I don't hardly trust any of the &@!! being put out there today, basically.

NOS may not always be the way to go. Hard to say this many years down the line if the product is up to the standards it was supposed have so long ago. 

I found a brand new pair of wing windows for my wagon. Everything from top to bottom. Outer frames, framed windows with genuine Ford glass, weatherstripping, handles, springs, everything.  Complete, assembled, in the box Ford products. Take out the old units put in the new, done. They looked perfect and worked great. ($$$) 

In less than six months the plastic between the layers of glass had begun to show considerable white stuff around the edges the same as old glass often does. Within another year or so the glass looked about as bad as what I had replaced. Maybe worse. Bubbles creeping in on both up to an inch from the edges in places, at least some everywhere else. Discoloration through the whole pane on both. Stainless and weather strip look great. The glass is as bad or worse as any on the rest of the car. Only one window on the car doesn't have the original Ford logo etching on it. (Clear but wouldn't you know it's cracked.) 

Have to figure that though exposure to the sunshine had something to with it, the age of the glass was the most important thing. It began failing immediately after taken out of storage. Only did what old glass does. Had to do it real fast to make up for lost time and it caught up with the old glass real quick. Because it WAS the same old glass.

Was totally unexpected by me and several other oldtimers that watched it happen. Made me start thinking twice about NOS stuff. Electrical certainly. Fibrous products as well may be suspect. Some level or another everything might be suspicious

Is it good or isn't it? Good question. Think about it in a box, or not, in a drawer or on a shelf, or not, in an un-climate controlled storage area of some sort in some part of the country or another for 50-60-70 years. Don't have the answer myself. Got one good lesson on the subject. Now I can't say. 

Well I don't want to get way off in the weeds on that.

How about say, solid valve lifters? Say you have a choice between a set of dusty blue boxed FoMoCo tool steel solid lifters from 1958 or, white boxed lifters from you-know-where made of golly knows what. Jus sayin'.

Been around long enough these days to know that every single part going into an engine is going to get checked for every dimension and clearance it has, as well as for hardness, along with every dimension and clearance said part is going mate up with.

If a good part comes from China so be it. Had my share of American made stuff that was no good. Going way back. And more recently too. Especially recently. Many of the top names in engine parts are living off their brand name. The guys I know in the business have to fight this type of thing constantly. Well known names they have dealt with for many years on a personal level have gone through changes and can no longer be counted on to deliver what they used to deliver. The people they used to know are gone. 

TOP names. One buddy says someone from (coincidently) a company through which he had ordered some hydraulic lifters asked him, "Why are you even checking that?" when he told them he was sending them back because of problems he found inside the lifters. Well because he learned to check them a long time ago because of the very problems he nearly always finds. This was a top company. "How dare you check what we send out!" Just put them in when you get them I guess. Has to be right these are from so and so.

Imagine this. Guy finds some original Ford lifters brand new in their dusty blue boxes and puts them in his engine. Buys some lifters from China and puts them in the dusty blue boxes and sells them at the local car show swap meet or on eBay for a nice little profit. Figures out a way to print new boxes just the right blue and make them look the perfect amount of dusty and worn. Puts them out for sale here and there on a regular basis. No guarantee of course, no one in their right mind is going to guarantee dusty old antique auto parts or expect them to be.

This kind of thing has been going on for so long in the general antique business that even the experts get fooled on a regular basis. There is nothing that can't be faked and faked really well. No reason to think it has not been going in the antique car business also. There's definitely a market with willing buyers that have their mind made up about want they want. Perfect for the fakers.    

That's not the way to bet, which is my point.

Anyhoo I just wondered aloud whether there was anything in a full gasket set from '57 that goes bad, over time. Then I wouldn't have to wonder about Quality. I'm certain we agree on more than we disagree.

NOS gaskets are not wise.  Mostly, they will be a waste of money because paper, cork, and rubber shrink and / or crack over time.  Metal gaskets (and NOS metal parts in general) won't have that problem but depending on how they've been stored, they can be badly oxidized and useless.

Best Gasket have shown some desire to move the Y-Block forward with their improved design head gaskets, which have less material around the pushrods to allow for more clamping force around the cylinder.  I had no idea they are double the price now.  They were pretty competitive the last time I checked.  So maybe from a cost perspective they aren't worth it for most builds but they are good gaskets.




Lawrenceville, GA

Woosh!
_______
Thanks Charlie, that's what I figured.

I find that buying engine parts  from a vendor that actually is in the business of working on engines, some one like Mummert,  is the best way to buy.  .  For instance, I bought a cam and lifters from him-  he makes sure that the cam has the correct groove for the oil supply.  The quality of the  lifters John  supplied was remarked on very favorably from the engine builder ( an old time flathead/Y/FE engine builder..


54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ