Gasket Kit Brands

[Grif]

I'm looking at Bike Bandit vs. Dennis Kirk, and there looks to be about a $100 spread between the Vesrah complete gasket kit and the Centauro complete gasket kit.

I don't want to break the bank, but I don't want to end up with paper gaskets either. That being said, what brands do y'all recommend?

[koolaid_kid]

I don't know which is cheaper, but I have never had any issues with Vesrah.

[Nessism]

Vesrah for me. Some people around here have spoken negatively of the Athena brand gaskets. One thing though that I don't understand, the Vesrah head gasket is all metal (several thin layers) which is different than the stock Suzuki gasket which is a composite. Not sure there is a problem with the metal gasket per say but the stock head gasket is tried and true.

[bwringer]

I've also never had a problem with Vesrah.

I used an Athena kit once on my GS850, and had to do some reshaping on the head gasket holes with a Dremel. The case gaskets were also visibly cheesier and more brittle cardboard instead of the plastic-like stuff the Vesrah gaskets are made from. That said, I also didn't have any leaks or problems with the Athena stuff after I reshaped the malformed holes.

In fact, many of the gaskets in a Vesrah kit are much better than OEM quality. As far as the head gasket, I dunno. I've never used an OEM head gasket, but the Vesrah kits seem to work fine.

Z1 Enterprises has much better prices on Vesrah kits:

http://z1enterprises.com

If he doesn't list your bike, email and ask.

[bwringer]

Vesrah for me. Some people around here have spoken negatively of the Athena brand gaskets. One thing though that I don't understand, the Vesrah head gasket is all metal (several thin layers) which is different than the stock Suzuki gasket which is a composite. Not sure there is a problem with the metal gasket per say but the stock head gasket is tried and true.

The Vesrah gaskets I've used (GS850) seem to be made up of metal layers coated with a black graphite-ish looking composite of some sort.

[Nessism]

The Vesrah gaskets I've used (GS850) seem to be made up of metal layers coated with a black graphite-ish looking composite of some sort.

The Vesrah GS550 head gasket is made of a black composite material sandwiched with two thin metal layers. Sounds like the opposite of the 850 head gasket. I'm not worried about it per say but I'm pretty sure the stock Suzuki head gasket for the 550 is not made like the Vesrah version.

[koolaid_kid]

There are many ways to defur a feline (I have to say that quietly, I have 2 cats). I have a Cometic head gasket which will wind up as the final head gasket for the GPz (the eternal project bike) and it uses yet a third type of material.
The purpose of a head gasket is to seal properly, and allow oil to flow to/from the head. As long as it does that, all is well.
I just looked at the Vesrah head gasket for the GPz, it is the same as Brian's.