OEM vs aftermarket

[t97]

Im about to order a few parts from Mitsubishi parts warehouse and i see they have oem headgaskets in stock. I was wondering if it would be best to order one of these or if felpro or some other aftermarket gasket would be better? Im going to keep my engine completely stock if it matters.

Also if there are anyparts that are better to go oem please let me know im pretty new to these trucks any suggestions would be appreciated.

[BradMph]

I use a felpro gasket set for 2 vehicles. Just remember to re-torque head after 500 miles or you may end up with a blow out. Felpro sometimes has different grades of gasket I think also. For one of my vehicles, the exhaust gaskets came with a silver color metal jacket and the other set was a colored metal jacket. I went with the silver since it matched the ports better then the other.

As for parts, do your best to avoid anything from China. OEM is always the good stuff, but there are other name brands that work well. Name brands & OEM usually can't go wrong.

OEM will cost a bit more as you probably know,but again paying a little more instead of changing it more often can make the difference up.

[geezer101]

More often than not an OEM component will be coming out of a factory that is making an 'after market equivalent' at the same time. Same part, different box, 40% cheaper. A while back I bought a pair of 6" dual cone speakers from a local electronics shop under their own brand name. I had found out they were actually Alpine S-Drive speakers that hadn't been embossed with the Alpine logo. They even had the same model number designation. Their retail price - $60 less than the shelf price of the Alpines...