headgasket suggestion - oil leak

cleaned off the accumulated junk to pinpoint the various leaks that are fouling my driveway.

in order of severity:

head gasket
front crank seal
oil filter adapter
oil fill cap

fixed the oil filter adapter, gettin a new oil fill cap this coming week, will do the front crank seal soon, BUT .....

....... I need to replace the head gasket.

The motor has 300,000 plus kms on it, so I dont wanna spend any money on go fast parts. I'd put a new motor in it if that were the case.

Anyone have a brand suggestion for a headgasket that should seal better than other considering it wont be going on freshly machined surfaces ?

Sean

I once tried the felpro gasket from Autozone, but it leaked. There are some things that are just better from the dealer (like fuel pumps) - head gaskets too. The head gasket from the dealer looks like three thin metal plates rivited together - with a thin blue bead on them.
From the dealer get a can of Mopar Head Gasket Sealant Spray. It goes on wet, but will make the surface tacky. Make sure you DON't use RTV.
Remeber, you'll also need to get an exhaust manifold, valve cover, and t-stat gasket (good time to swap the t-stat itself).
Good Luck...

See if the dealer has a gasket kit, one that has all those parts in it. Might also want to consider a mopar crate motor and just go all the way. For a stop gap method, if you can see where the leak is coming from and it's really obvious, not leaking into the cylinders or anything you could try this:
Using a really good degreaser clean out the leaky area really well of all oil. Lightly force in some sealer and let it setup over nite. This might temp solve the problem but it might not.
If you do the gasket then send the head out to have it cleaned, this will remove the sludge thats in there and prevent it from ending up down in the oil pan after reassembly, might want to pull and look at the lifters too as long as you have it apart, easy to do it then.
I'd be real leery though about pulling a 300,000mi motor apart without cleaning it up. I hosed my 2.8V6 this way just to fix a leak in the rear of the intake manifold that I just should have degreased, picked clean and repacked with RTV but I did not know it was RTV, we all thought it was a gasket that needed replacing becuse felpro listed a gasket part number.

if you dont get the head cleaned proffesionally go at it with a few cans of carb cleaner and try yo lightly plane the contact side of the head with a long fine-tooth file... dont shave it, just plane it a lil to see if there are any high or low spots or warpage... put some shaving cream in the ports to help hold any metal particles you make and shop-vac out the shave cream before you clean it again..
mc

Um, I might be reading this wrong, but when you say oil leaks, then say head gasket are you referring to the actual head gasket or do you mean the valve cover gasket. Seems to me that if you have a bad head gasket then oil leaks are the least of your problems.

Mike

I agree with Backdraft but I also agree with everyone else about cleaning. If you are going to go that far you might as well clean that thing out real good before putting it back together. You are already going to have it most of the way apart and getting the head checked and cleaned professionally is the smartest thing you can do. It might save you alot of trouble and money down the road and it will make that motor lastàoanx mi¬es moreî,While you have it that°oar apaât I would suggest dropping the oil pan and cleaning all that up to. Theànead will be goþl for a$%le`st °!dax anh}ay so éfu coul4%use tht spare time to really clean the rest of the motor. You will thaþm ynurs¬gf vhen`what modgr reacøls 400,ð20 plusÞ