Re: Which head gaskets?
I have both Cometics and Victors (stock) and I'm trying to decide which to use. I'm leaning strongly towards the Victors because my block is stock and the deck will only be scraped the best I can with a gasket scraper. Cometic specifies a "RA 50" surface smoothness or better. I just talked to the machinist at the machine shop today about this and he said they do a lot of Cometics on turbo apps but will occasionally get water leaks out the side of the block (not into the oil). I have heard this same thing everywhere I ask about Cometics, sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you aren't. Les Young (100in6 on this board) said the same thing about his Cometics from what I recollect.
The victors that came on my truck from the factory have lasted to 27 PSI sustained including a few "mistakes" where I maxxed out a 30 PSI boost gauge. I will probably do the Victors on my factory block, and switch to Cometics when I rebuild the engine and get a chance to machine the deck to that RA50 smoothness.
:2cents: