When I swapped the engine from my parts car into my yellow 240Z last Fall, I attempted to use a normal manifold gasket with the headers. Not too surprisingly, I had exhaust leaks at the head. I knew I should use a header gasket, but was too lazy to order one ahead of time.

Before I got around to ordering one of the paper gaskets from MSA, I remembered that the the gasket on the parts car was rather odd. After a bit of research, I found that what it had on it was a Hooker Header Gasket set. (Which makes sense, the header itself is a Hooker Super-comp.)

Hooker no longer makes Datsun/Nissan headers, but they do still make the gasket set. Yes, I said set. The Hooker solution is a three piece gasket set, rather than one long gasket. The price was about the same as MSA, and the Hooker set was available locally (no shipping), so I ordered it.

I installed the set today, and am pleased with the results. The Hooker gaskets seal nicely. They may look odd, but they work well. Here's hoping that Hooker continues to keep these in production, it gives one more option for header gaskets.

What did you do, launder them first to loosen them up? Were they to big, and you had to shrink them in the dryer?

Either way, it's good to know there are more options out there for the Z community.

Naw, the washer and dryer are in the garage. Wife gets testy when I set dirty, greasy parts on them.

To clarify, the Hooker gasket set will only fit square port, carburated heads. No round ports, and no injector slots in the gasket.