inline6 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) What I'd like to know is, who would be interested in a MLS head gasket from Cometic? MLS (Multi Layer Steel) gaskets seem to be the ones most desired for high performance L series engines from what I can gather. Right now, availability is pretty bad -- HKS ones appear to be no longer available. Kameari are available for now, but recently jumped to $310 for the 1mm, and $365 for the 2mm. There is also one available from Nismo in a .6mm for $150. Tomei appear to be available on some websites anyway, but who knows if they are in stock? Looks like maybe $290 each? If you would be interested, then please indicate the following: What thickness? What bore size is your motor? At what price you feel it would be worth switching from those that may be available: $150 or $200 or $250 or $300 or a dollar under the cost of the Kameari Theoretically, if there is a lot of demand for these things, there is a possibility we could get them made. I don't think this qualifies as a "group buy" post because the cost of the gaskets is unknown at this point. The only thing I do know is that there is some up front engineering cost before the first one could be made. So... let's find out the level of interest and if this is worth taking to the next level. Maybe this could evolve to a group buy. Edited February 9, 2011 by inline6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Want one for stock L28's, in a 1mm and a 2mm thickness. I would like to see them for $200-$250 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Have you called cometic? I did almost 2 months ago and it was over $3000 on the "tooling and setup" and over $300 a gasket after that. Go on ebay, buy the Kamenari one with ARP head bolts with the Make Offer button for a really good deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inline6 Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) HKS went away... Kameari just jumped in price. I'm thinking they will go away at some point also... Did I call them? $3800 on the engineering upfront is the word I got... I hoped to see a lot of interest to this post - 50-100 people? Other similar applications from Cometic such as the RB25 head gasket are only $177. I don't see why each gasket would be priced at over $300 My quick break even math looks like this: Kameari = $310 Target Cometic L6 head gasket price = $200 Engineering investment (a one time deal) = ~ $4000 So, you take the $310 minus the $200, which gives you $110. This is the investment, if you will, per person, which is only needed to figure out how many people we need to offset the engineering costs. Divide $4000 by $110 gives you 36.36. So, if the gasket price itself could be $200, we'd need 36.36 people to pay $310 to offset the engineering cost and they would get one gasket. So, what happens when you get 50 people? With 50, the engineering investment cost per person drops to $80. Gasket is still $200. So now we're getting in the ballpark of $280 for a Cometic MLS. Ok, how about 70 people (or gaskets actually as some will want more than one). $257.14 per gasket. So, they make them for RB motors, of which there are how many here in the US? 10? 100? 1000? And how many L6's are there in the hands of performance oriented folks like us? I am hoping everyone will still indicate your interest. The Kameari at an offer price below the buy it now might be a good short term option for some, but I'd like a Cometic MLS and I'd like to know who else is interested in them as well. I was planning to pursue the matter only if I got a good response from you folks. Something tells me they would be willing to sell the gaskets for $200 - $250 if they had an order for over 70 of them that also covered their engineering costs. Edited February 9, 2011 by inline6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayaapp2 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I spoke with Cometic several years back. I cant remember the guys name that I had corresponded with. Basically there needed to be a good number of people interested for them to tool up. I had enough people interested in it to get a $200 price tag. Id be comfortable with $180-$210 gasket in multiple sizes from .6mm,1mm,1.5mm,and 2mm. Cometic seemed to think gasket thickness wasnt much of a cost issue after they were tooled to make the gaskets themselves. The guy I was in contact with eventually lost touch with me. After a barrage of emails from me I finally gave up and bought the $200 HKS 2mm headgasket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inline6 Posted February 9, 2011 Author Share Posted February 9, 2011 I spoke with Cometic several years back. I cant remember the guys name that I had corresponded with. Basically there needed to be a good number of people interested for them to tool up. I had enough people interested in it to get a $200 price tag. Id be comfortable with $180-$210 gasket in multiple sizes from .6mm,1mm,1.5mm,and 2mm. Cometic seemed to think gasket thickness wasnt much of a cost issue after they were tooled to make the gaskets themselves. The guy I was in contact with eventually lost touch with me. After a barrage of emails from me I finally gave up and bought the $200 HKS 2mm headgasket. Good info. So folks! It looks to me like it is going to come down to whether there is interest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PalmettoZ Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 It would seem that these could easily be made with a water jet cutter. Have you thought about approaching someone who does this with the idea? They might even have a scanner that could do the measurements off of an existing gasket very quickly. I have a friend who does water jet cutting manufacturing that could easily produce these out of any kind of sheet metal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z-ya Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Tomei makes 90.5mm L6 gaskets: 1.0mm 1.2mm 1.5mm 2.0mm There is a guy on Ebay that sells them for around $250. He can get all thicknesses http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330513420533&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT http://www.ooparts-international.co.jp/index/car/listbybrand/tomei/gasket/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studioti Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I'd be interested. Looking for 2mm to slightly lower compression on an F54/N42 setup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModernS30 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 I may be interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 It would seem that these could easily be made with a water jet cutter. Have you thought about approaching someone who does this with the idea? They might even have a scanner that could do the measurements off of an existing gasket very quickly. I have a friend who does water jet cutting manufacturing that could easily produce these out of any kind of sheet metal. I could definitely cut a copper one based on a pattern or stock gasket. I thought the MLS ones had grooves and such to seal between layers. If that's not the case I can definitly look into cutting one (or some) at work to try out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhartig Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 At the $200 - $250 I would be interested in 0.6 mm and 1.25 mm or something similar, for 89 mm bores. It would be interesting to see prices for water jet cut copper gaskets on volume buys vs Cometic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inline6 Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 At the $200 - $250 I would be interested in 0.6 mm and 1.25 mm or something similar, for 89 mm bores. It would be interesting to see prices for water jet cut copper gaskets on volume buys vs Cometic. Cometic quoted me a .043" copper head gasket for $162.16... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mario_82_ZXT Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Cometic quoted me a .043" copper head gasket for $162.16... http://www.headgasket.com/index.html Those guys hover right around $100 for a copper gasket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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