How to Choose the Right Fel-Pro Gasket Set

Start with the engine, not the photo

The same car often had two engines, and those engines do not share a head gasket. A 3.8 and a 4.3, or a single-cam and a dual-cam four-cylinder, will both show up if you stop at year, make, and model. Look up the vehicle, then pick the engine. The fitment lines and the engine page are the record of what this catalog actually lists. A gasket photo does not show bore, thickness, or which intake the set was built for.

If two part numbers both list your engine, the difference is usually construction (MLS, composite, or a wire-ring performance gasket), bore, or compressed thickness. Open both part pages and compare those attributes before ordering. Notes on the vehicle listing, such as VIN codes or a valve-cover shape, are there because the two parts are not interchangeable.

Head set, full set, or one gasket

Buy the set that matches the joints you are opening. A valve-cover leak needs a valve cover gasket, not a head set. A head that is coming off needs the head gasket plus every other gasket that has to be removed to get the head off and back on.

A Fel-Pro head set (most of those part numbers start with HS) is built for that head-off job. It typically includes the head gaskets and the intake, exhaust, and valve-cover gaskets the procedure disturbs, and on many engines the valve stem seals. It does not typically include the oil pan gasket, the rear main seal, or the timing cover set. A full set (FS) adds those lower-end gaskets for an engine that is out, or for a job that already has the pan and the timing cover off. Paying for a full set when the pan is staying on the car is harmless. Skipping the intake gaskets on a head job is how coolant ends up back in the oil.

• Valve cover only: valve cover gasket or valve cover set.
• Intake only: intake manifold gasket or intake set. The valley and the coolant ports are part of that joint on most V engines.
• Heads off, pan and timing cover staying on: head set.
• Heads off and the pan or timing cover is also off: full set, or a head set plus the individual lower gaskets.
• Oil pan only: oil pan gasket. Do not open the heads to replace a pan gasket.

Conversion sets and single manifold gaskets

A conversion set (CS) is for a specific engine swap or year-range change that the fitment line describes. It is the wrong box if you are putting the original engine back together. The fitment text has to mention the swap you are doing. A conversion set that “fits the block” but lists a different head or intake will have the wrong port shapes.

Intake manifold sets (MS), valve cover sets (VS), and oil pan sets (OS) are the individual joints. Exhaust manifold gaskets are listed as their own part type. Use those when only that joint is open. An exhaust gasket does not come along for free with an intake set.

What the letters on the part number usually mean

The prefix is a Fel-Pro naming habit, and the part type on the page is the authority when they disagree. In this catalog, HS is a head set, FS is a full set, CS is a conversion set, MS is an intake manifold set, VS is a valve cover set, and OS is an oil pan set. A few numbers break the pattern. If the page says valve cover gasket, it is a valve cover gasket even if you expected a different prefix.

A PT suffix marks many PermaTorque parts, including PermaTorqueMLS head gaskets and head sets. A trailing R on valve-cover and oil-pan numbers usually means a molded rubber gasket rather than cork or paper. Rubber is the better seal on a cover that used to leak because the cork took a set. It still has to be the rubber gasket listed for that cover; a rubber gasket for a different cover will not match the bolt spacing or the spark-plug reliefs.

One engine, several head gaskets

When the catalog lists more than one head gasket for the same engine, do not pick the cheapest and do not pick the one labeled performance unless the engine is built for it. Compare bore, compressed thickness, and construction. A performance wire-ring gasket on a stock daily driver is not an upgrade if the bore and thickness do not match, and an MLS gasket on a rough, unmeasured iron deck is a leak.

After the gasket type is settled, check the related parts for that engine: the head bolt set, the intake set, the exhaust gaskets, and the valve cover gaskets. A head set may already contain the gaskets. It does not contain torque-to-yield head bolts. Those are a separate part, and they are not reusable.