So the story begins when I swapped out my crane 14's with a set of crane 16's. I replaced the oem lifters with pt style sbi's, the oem rockers with the stronger 2.7 ones, I also figured I'd change the timing belt too while I had it apart. I went with a brand new timing belt from oreillys and it snapped after only 200 miles, bending 14 out of the 16 valves in the head. So now I am looking at getting some arp's, ss valves, and a new head gasket. I did some searching and didn't get any definite answer as to why one would be better than the other besides the cometic costing roughly $30 more, I mean they are both mls. I've been running 22 psi daily on e85, if that is going to make a difference, so I would like to get an answer on which one would suit me best.

Ive ran both. The only difference I can think of is the ability to select a thicker head gasket with the cometic. I currently run a 4 layer felpro and haven't had a problem.

Well, I used felpro (with no reservations) on a couple of my 10.5 set-ups. No problems, but I am using Cometic on the current turbo set-up (only because I got a good deal on it. Otherwise I was going to go with OEM - which is on my 12.5 comp set-up).

Honestly, when you think about it, as long as your surfaces are flat it seems that the Felpro should be OK (seeing as how it worked fine at 10.5 comp NA). But then my previous paragraph shows I got no balls to back up the last statement, lol.

Hmmmm I swear I seen this post over on tuners, lol...

Give that guy Bruce Roller a chance over at partsdinosaur.com. Sounds like the Apexi upper gasket kit will suit you well for the head gasket problem. If you need the timing kit, his PCI performance kit that he has is also great. I bought it when I did the engine overhaul along with his upper and lower gaskets, good stuff man. Torque them down with some arp's FTW!!!. Engine runs like charm. All his stuff is OEM quality with speedy fast shipping...

http://www.store.partsdinosaur.com/product265.html
http://www.store.partsdinosaur.com/product1310.html

I already have a new timing belt, I just ordered up some 1mm oversize PEP ss valves. I'm going to order up a Fel-Pro Perma Torque MLS head gasket, some ARP's, and new valve stem seals here soon. I'm choosing to go with the Perma Torque MLS head gasket after MAPerformance reccomended it to me,they are currently running it in the 4g64 powered rx-7 after blowing a cometic and they've had great success with these gaskets. I also talked to DB Performance and they recomended the Fel-Pro Perma Torque MLS and told me that Brent Rau has been running it for a while and it holds up for him.

both brands are good and quality lies on the work put into it. my friend blew a cometic gasket on a turbo civic but not cause the gasket is junk but because the temp hit 220+ at 12psi. that was even with arp head bolts. like ol'boy said^^^, just make sure it's smooth and tourqe it right.