What do you all think about this gasket kit ? Looks like a good deal for $75. Do you think it would be good for my grocery getter daily driver ?

fel pro gasket kit

The gasket kit will do fine.

Steve

Felpro is considered "the best" for mosr rebuilds. They're not "original looking" if that makes a difference. For that, we use the Victor/Reinz set.

Be sure to buy a "GraphTite" rear main seal. The fibre-glass version in the Felpro set is "marginal" at best. We get ours from DCI Motorsports in Magadore, Ohio. IMO, for stock-ish applications, the GraphTite seal is the best choice.

Jim

ok thanks. One additional question, my valve covers are M/T and they don't have breathers on them (the one side does have a plug for filling the oil). Does this matter ? I want to make sure the engine breathes so it doesn't blow a seal (maybe the PCV is sufficient for this purpose ?)

thanks

thats the kit I bought 7 or 8 yrs ago...

NO! You NEED a breather. The M/T covers have "knock-outs" for either a "push in" or "screw-in" cap. We use the screw-in type, and Stant #10064 "breather cap". This is the standard "fix". The factory version would have a "pipe" going to the underside of the air cleaner from the valve cover.

Jim

I thought that the BOP Vitron rear main seal was the cat's meow for Pontiac motors.

i agree with you the viton seal is suppose to be the best.

thanks I'll pick one of those stants up (on second inspection, I think it won't fit with the t-bolts, I kind of wanted to keep those, any ideas). it's just mocked up right now, 68' 400 from a Bonneville, I'm going to rebuild it and paint it the proper blue color.

here are some replies when I was asking about oil pan gaskets if interested.
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The '69 had the pan that used the cork "strip" for the rear lip. None were "baffled". The '71 pan used the rubber "lip" with two "blades and a titty" sticking through. This is the MOST failure-prone version. By '76, they had the 5-blade lip. Not as "bad" as the second version, it was still more prone to fail than the cork strip.
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Regarding oil pan gaskets:

GM still holds the license on the best rear pan seal with the 5 blades. Thus ALL aftermarket pans are designed for the bad 3 blade rear seal.

After blowing out my 3 blade rear seal after about 1 hour on my rebuilt 455, I sprung for the new, 1-piece, metal reinforced oil pan gasket from BOP Engineering. I highly recommend it.
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I use the early set that comes with the cork gasket. Even on new style pans.
Lightly glue it and the rest to the cap or pan for easier install.
Early pans also used a metal band over the rear cap which helps keep it tight.
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We use the "cork" (it's really "composition", a mixture of cork and neoprene... See the black "lines" though it?) strip in ALL applications NOT getting the BOP 1-piece gasket (excellent piece, BTW). The pre-'72 blocks usually have a "grooved" rear cap with a recess for the strip. The later ones don't. For the "grooved" cap, the strip supplied in the gasket set is correct. For the non-grooved cap, we use a strip made of 3/16" thick "cork" gasket material, 1/2" wide, cut to length (using the supplied strip as a "template").

I wrote a "step by step" procedure to "seal up" the Pontiac and Bill Boyle was supposed to put it on his site (pontiacstreetperformance.com), but it isn't "up" yet. It's only been a couple of weeks, so it should be there any time now. It includes a very specific method to installing the pan.

IMO, the "best" factory pans and gaskets are the pre-71s, that use the cork strip. Both of the rubber strips are problematic. The "strap" was a dealer-installed "warranty" fix for the lips failing. We see them on about 25% of the "virgin" engines that come in.
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The BOP Viton seal IS excellent. However, we HAVE seen some issues when used in a factory block. The seal "groove" machined in the block is not "close tolerance" as they knew it would house a "rope" seal. The rope is self-fitting (for lack of a better description). Due to this, we recommend the GraphTite seal for "stock" blocks. When using an IA-II block and an aftermarket crankshaft, the BOP is the only logical choice.

Jim

So is the GraphTite seal a rope style seal?

May be able to replace the oil fill plug with a breather.

Yes, GraphTite is a rope. it comes with explicit instructions and the necessary tools.

Jim

yes that is what I wanted to do but it is in the same spot (just the other side valve cover). Looks like it would have the same interference. I guess if I must have a breather, than I will need to get rid of one of the t-bolts if it is in the way (like the power brake booster).

My VITON seal leaks

Junk those cork valve cover gaskets and get a pair of these...

http://www.tinindianperformance.com/pontiac%20valve%20cover%20gaskets.htm

Put'm on dry and forget about'm!

LOL, I put those valve cover gaskets on 2 years ago....(also new valve covers ,really nice ones) and drove to Corpus...lost 2 qts oil! even with those...found out that my new covers had been casted and they did grind down the 'tits' inside and created walloped out areas where those nice gaskets couldnt seal because of being so rigid...had to buy another gasket and silicone to the others to 'fill the gap'....so it wasnt the gaskets fault , but by being so good they leaked! lol...the valve covers look like this , but I should have checked the inside better before installing.

LOL...sometimes it's the easiest job that goes the most awry!

exactly!

I bought the repro chrome valve covers....the [censored] things are about 1/8" shorter than the originals (which I still have albeit scratched to [censored]). a few rockers were hitting the covers, so I put on the thick gaskets and all good....altho I had to snug them down a few times on one side as it would leak a bit...all good now..

I was fortunate enough to have original covers that I had chromed(many moons ago)and work good with those gaskets.

Bronze Bird,

"Stock block"?

The covers in the picture we've installed without incident. At least they LOOK like those... RPC?

The "hard" gasket is only suited to very rigid covers, probably not a real good idea on factory covers. Been there, done that... (:-

Jim

I would recommend upgrading the head gaskets to the Performance version (don't recall the #?). They have better combustion sealing than the stock PT8518's. There is a wire ring under the combustion seal armor. This will not collapse over time. The stock ones don't have this, just the beater sheet (fiber paper) under the armor, which over time will creep and loose thickness...i.e. combustion loading. They are better, but at a price of course.

All it takes is one hot episode to ruin those gaskets.