Last weekend I went to the Hot Rod & Race show (or whatever) at the Suburban show place in Novi MI. Lots of go fast stuff from Detroit.
But my next project isn’t hot rod or race. I’m planning to take my 81 SE to Devils Run in Devils Lake North Dakota at the end of May and I want a working air conditioner and no more leaks around my valve covers before the 2,200 mile round trip.
The AC parts I have or I know where to get them. I’m looking for some valve cover gaskets made like the 1 piece, steel core, oil pan gasket I bought from BOP Engineering a while back. The Chevy guys got them, surely somebody made one for a Pontiac V-8 by now, right. Nope
Mahle North America is a few minutes down the road so of course they had a booth... I think it’s their after market division. I wander up and ask if they have valve cover gaskets for a Pontiac and the rep said they do!
He shows the benefits and explains.
1 Steel core
2. Reusable rubber gasket material.
3. Three elevated ridges on the top of the gasket that look like they’ll ACTUALLY seal.
4. Load limiters - around the bolt holes so you can’t over torque and bend the cover.
SWEET! I’ll take them!
Nope, these are for display. You can order them from Summit and Jegs or where ever...
So I took a copy of the Mahle 2018 Performance Gasket Catalog - NO. GA-40-18 and went home to order part number VS50754.
Summit, no, Jegs, no, Autozone, no, Mahle web site doesn’t even list it. What gives?
The catalog has an 800 number. Turns out this part is NEW. REALLY NEW. Riley at Mahle directs me to David at Clevite.
David at Clevite in Georgia pulls up the part number and says the only place that has stock is the Clevite distribution center... but they can’t sell them retail.
David tells me to call Diesel Performance Parts in Nashville, TN. 615-843-0066. When they can’t pull up the part number tell them to call David at Clevite.
They did. $86.03 + shipping. Thud
Are the awesome new valve cover gaskets from Mahle worth a hundy?
I can reseal the $20 steel core rubber ones I got from BOP that are on the car now for two bucks worth of RTV.
What do you think?
