Engine Seal Kit

[Toro]

Among other parts for my rebuild, I am looking for a seal kit. There's the 10-piece one on MikesXs and there's this 7-piece one on eBay. I guess my question is (even though probably obvious) which one do I go with? Are there places to get the 10-piece seal kit at a better price than Mike's? I also purchased the Athena complete gasket kit which may have the 3 extra seals in it? Just a little hazy with this, so if anybody could help clear it up I would appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[5twins]

I think I'd go with the eBay one. Of the three missing seals, about the only one you might need is the little tach drive seal, and it's pretty cheap directly from Yamaha. In fact most of the seals are cheaper from Yamaha than from Mike's, lol. Here's a price comparison chart I made up a few years ago. No doubt the prices have gone up but I'll bet Yamaha is still cheaper than Mikes in most cases .....

The only seals that come in that Athena gasket kit are the valve guide seals. I've found the Athena head gaskets seem to fail in about 10 years. The one on my '78 (rebuilt in '07) has gone bad and the one on my buddy's '80 (rebuilt a few years later) is also leaking now. And the one on my recently acquired '83 is also starting to leak. It was rebuilt in the early 2000's then parked shortly after for like 12 years because it quit charging. I figure there's only a few thousand miles on the rebuild since I got it running but it's not the mileage that kills these Athena head gaskets, it's their age. I'm obviously not going to use them anymore. Another check mark against them is they're thicker than an original. That reduces the compression a little and that means less power.