Black onxy headgaskets, or OEM? Which is better?

[Jason.]

Well, my 04 6.0 decided it wanted to blow a headgasket, even with the ARP studs (I did the studs 2 years ago, but did not change gaskets because there was nothing wrong with the truck at th time, long story short, half assed it trying to be cheap.)

Now I'm doing it right, the truck is getting tore down next week in a buddys garage (ford diesel tech) and we will be doing new headgaskets, NEW set of arp's, since the ones I had in the truck I bought used, full EGR delete, new oil cooler, new clutch fan, sending the heads to the machine shop to be checked and rebuilt, and ceramic coating the exhaust manifolds (suppose to keep temps down, it did on my race car.)

Now, I need to know which headgaskets everyone is using, stock or black onyx, and which is better, I'm not worried about the price difference between them, just need to know which is better.

[pizza pig]

i say go with the Black onyx, most people seem to make the switch when its time to do this. But i do know alot using OEM with no issues

[PGreenSVT]

It's a toss up but since it's your dime I'd go with the Black Onyx. Either will work fine though. There are some pretty high power trucks running OEM gaskets.

[Dave]

Go with the black onyx

[STRKTHS73]

black onyx, its preferred over OEM

[hazard]

save your money, oems will perform just fine.

[Dave]

Originally Posted by hazard

save your money, oems will perform just fine.

Black onyx are cheaper than OEM if you know where to get them

[Jason.]

Seems to be about the same feedback I have been hearing locally. about 50/50 say black onyx or oem. I've always used aftermarket headgaskets on my race cars, but that was just because absurd amounts of nitrous went through them.

I guess I will go OEM since my mother in law works for ford, and can get me everything at a discount, even the studs shipped to my door at $445. I mean if there was a huge difference I could see spending the money, but it's almost like you're paying for a name.

[Dave]

Can she get you OEMs for less than 52 bucks?

[Jason.]

Originally Posted by Dave

Can she get you OEMs for less than 52 bucks?

She is getting me prices on everything monday when she goes to work.

My thing is, I want to buy everything at once, from the same place. studs, egr delete, gaskets (headgaskets, intake, and exhaust manifolds, all o-rings, etc.), oil cooler, and all.

Cobbs diesel has a kit shipped to the door for $1350 that has a full sinister egr delete with up pipe, all black onyx gaskets (head, intake, exhaust, all o-rings, etc.), new OE oil cooler, and all. doesn't seem too bad to me since me and a tech I know will be doing this off the books.