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Athena Gaskets... Garbage or bad batch?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sam78gs750
  • Start date Start date
You guys in the US must have been sold a duff lot. Those pics from Ed show something made out of stuff that looks more normal for wiping your backside on. I've used a lot of Athena gaskets over here and have been impressed and they've always lasted well. Maybe we're using older stock and our time will come.....:(

The only complaint I've ever had with Athena is that they are sometimes a bit short on some of the smaller gaskets or O rings in their sets and you have to buy those on their own or make them up.
 
Thanks Ed, already covered off the bottom end though.

I have OEM base gasket and oil seals etc., so hopefully the rest will be good with Athena.

Hampshirehog... I was wondering the same thing as the distributor here swears by them and hasn't heard the same stories I'm seeing here.
 
pete said:
Thanks Ed, already covered off the bottom end though.

I have OEM base gasket and oil seals etc., so hopefully the rest will be good with Athena.

Hampshirehog... I was wondering the same thing as the distributor here swears by them and hasn't heard the same stories I'm seeing here.
Click to expand...

You'll most like be okay Pete. What kind of head gasket did you get? MLS or composite type? As long as the surfaces are smooth I wouldn't worry as long as you aren't using the base gasket and O-rings.
 
Not sure yet Ed, just waiting for my tax refund to arrive and then'll I'll be ordering it.

The distributor here said his new stock is just passing through customs early last week, so should be available by the time the cash arrives.

One thing I do plan to be doing is making sure all those mating surfaces are 110% prepared.
 
None of the aftermarket sets are anywhere near as complete as the OEM set.

When you add up all the stuff you're missing from a Vescrap or crApthena set (can you tell I'm bitter?) you'll find that the aftermarket "complete" set is no bargain at all.

The OEM sets include every last sealing washer, gasket, and o-ring you'll need. If you're doing a complete rebuild, the only things they don't include are crankshaft and transmission seals. I believe the cam chain tensioner and tach drive seals are not included in the OEM sets as well.
 
bwringer said:
None of the aftermarket sets are anywhere near as complete as the OEM set.

When you add up all the stuff you're missing from a Vescrap or crApthena set (can you tell I'm bitter?) you'll find that the aftermarket "complete" set is no bargain at all.

The OEM sets include every last sealing washer, gasket, and o-ring you'll need. If you're doing a complete rebuild, the only things they don't include are crankshaft and transmission seals. I believe the cam chain tensioner and tach drive seals are not included in the OEM sets as well.
Click to expand...

I don't see any bitterness there :p

As to the completeness of both, that works for you 4 cylinder guys because you can still get complete OEM sets.

Us twin cylinder guys (or at least my model) can't get OEM sets any more, so it's one gasket/seal at a time, which gets prohibitively expensive.

By prohibitively expensive, I mean just the base, head, and valve cover gaskets total over $200 for me. That's with nothing else mind you, just three gaskets. The "complete" Athena kit is just under $100.

So, even if I have to source an odd seal here or there, it will still be probably a third or less of the price of buying the OEM ones individually once you include all the other gaskets and seals required.

As mentioned earlier, I have all the bottom end stuff already and I got all that individually OEM, so if anything from Athena does fail, at least I won't have to split the cases again...
 
I received my kit last night and it appears that the base gasket is indeed the green version as seen in ugly previous pic's.

I haven't opened the kit yet but I took some pic's and some close ups of the head gasket to see what material it is while it's all still sealed but I haven't been able to get them off the camera yet.
 
Ok so here's what I got:



Close ups of the head gasket:



Ed, not sure if it's MLS or not but it does definitely appear to have some metal content in there...

It's all still sealed currently, so I haven't been able to check how "complete" it really is yet, not sure when I'll get to it either just yet.
 
Overall the kit has a lot of good stuff cheap, but I would say IF you are going for the top end rebuild buy an OEM base to go with the set. It is the cheaper of the OEM gaskets and the weakest in the Athena kit.

The head gasket I got did great, minus the missing orings (if you didnt get all 4 buy extra and use them).

Although mine looks more metalic than yours...

100_5289.jpg
 
pete said:
Close ups of the head gasket:



Ed, not sure if it's MLS or not but it does definitely appear to have some metal content in there...

It's all still sealed currently, so I haven't been able to check how "complete" it really is yet, not sure when I'll get to it either just yet.
Click to expand...

That's a composite head gasket Pete. I'm not sure how good/bad they are, I just know those green base gaskets are BAD.

Good luck.:)
 
Thanks for the clarification there Ed, this is the first time ever I've had to play with gaskets, so all new to me at the moment... wish I had've done it a few years earlier though as I may have had some chance of getting an OEM kit. Oh well...

Skateguy... I already have the base gasket and bottom end seals in OEM due to this thread :D
 
I have been using the Athena Gaskets for years without a hitch. I have seen on another forum that some moaned that it broke their engine. It turns out they used the wrong gasket and blocked an oil way.
 
I used Athena Gaskets also. When I built my engine in 2009. Got them because they were cheaper than the others. Have not had a problem.
 
Some stubborn people here. Good luck to you guys!

This much I KNOW: the bright green gasket material used for the base gasket around 2010 was too soft for the application. Further, the gasket material used for some of the other gaskets, the valve cover for example, was low density and subject to shredding easily. Those gaskets would tear and sort of delaminate so to speak if you would try to reuse them such as when adjusting your valves. The OEM gasket material in comparison had an almost rubberlike consistency and could be reused numerous times as long as it doesn't stick too bad (some people coat them with oil/grease for this reason).

I've seen some photos of newer Athena gasket kits and at least some of them seem to have moved to a darker green gasket material. I'm just guessing here but it wouldn't surprise me if they figured out about the problems and upgraded the material. I'm not sure if they improved the other gaskets though. So the question now becomes: do you feel lucky?
 
Nope! The Kat will be going together with genuine gaskets and seals. Might use a Cometic head gasket but that'd be the only deviation. The only Athena gasket remaining on the 450 is the right side case cover gasket where the clutch is, and that's only because it hasn't had to come off yet since the rebuild. Every other Athena gasket weeped, leaked, or went brittle and broke when taking something apart, so they have all been exorcised.
 
pete said:
Nope! The Kat will be going together with genuine gaskets and seals. Might use a Cometic head gasket but that'd be the only deviation. The only Athena gasket remaining on the 450 is the right side case cover gasket where the clutch is, and that's only because it hasn't had to come off yet since the rebuild. Every other Athena gasket weeped, leaked, or went brittle and broke when taking something apart, so they have all been exorcised.
Click to expand...


Crikey, talk about a grave-digging thread -- 7 years!

Anyhoo, I wouldn't order up a Cometic unless you hate money and have an unaccountable desire to see something spectacularly crappy.

Perhaps Cometic makes decent gaskets that don't leak for some other vehicle. I've never seen one.

Over on the KLR650 site (basically the same engine for 30 years, so we have a VERY good sample), Cometics are famed only for poor fit and their ability to leak.
 
Yep an old thread alright! Interesting on the Cometic, I always thought they were a go-to if there wasn't a suitable head gasket. Genuine will still be my preference though anyway...
 
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