I blew another head gasket on one of my blazer's when I was in a hurry driving through Iowa on all those two lane highways, passing alot. Oops.

In any case, I really don't like having to tear down through the engine to replace a head gasket, but I don't know too much about how some of these specialized gaskets are - the Felpro Severe Duty and Severe Duty + MLS gaskets. From what I read the MLS's are now standard for the really finely machined japanese engines and some other applications, but they are listed for the 4.3L Vortec engines so I thought I'd see what some of you think. I'd be happy to plunk down the extra cost to avoid having to go to all the trouble again, but both of my blazer's had a head gasket failure around the same milage (135k), so maybe it was just waiting to happen, idk.

Anybody have some experience with these things? Or any other suggestions (besides slowing down, lol)?

 

MLS gaskets are typically used for forced induction applications where the fiber type gaskets may not withstand the combustion pressures. Even MLS gaskets would not do so hot if the heads were not flat.

I would inspect the heads for warping. If the engine has ever been overheated, it can severely shorten the life of the head gasket, especially if it got hot enough to warp a head.