Rebuilding an engine. Any brands or vendors of parts to avoid? Needing gaskets, rings, valve guides and seals, bearings, rod/head bolts, etc. Prices vary greatly from expensive genuine oem to cheap aftermarket and eBay.

 

I'd go genuine with internal engine components.
You'd probably be ok with aftermarket gaskets.
My experiences with the cheaper aftermarket parts are hit or miss, especially allmakes4x4 (which I avoid if I can).
I had a water pump last 12k miles before the bearing exploded, a brand new power steering pump dead on arrival, and new timing gears that were cast poorly and didn't fit.

 

Got this head gasket kit weeks ago. It looks top quality.

 

Where's that from?

 

Genuine Valve guide $24 non moving part. Aftermarket $3. Small block chevy less than $3. Hmmm.... maybe depends on what the part is. Bummer on your bad luck. Nothing worse than doing a job twice that should outlast the truck.

 

Like that except for the composite exhaust manifold gaskets. Tried them twice always leak, the layered metal gaskets are the way to go.

 

The kit includes the layered metal gasket. Youre right about the composite gaskets. I used them last November and they leaked so bad. When I replaced my cats 2 months ago, I ordered the metal gaskets fron Reinz with thin layer of metal sheets. Those are good.
Anyway, the Reinz gasket kit does not include head bolts and I had to get them separate. The head cover has a really nice tab on the side with the name Victor Reinz.

 

I think I ordered them through autohausAZ

 

Looks like RAuto has a decent price on the VICTOR REINZ HS54696 too.

 

I prefer el-ring head gaskets.

For engine rebuilding, get what parts you can from Turner Engineering (uk). Their prices are the best (bearings, rings, gaskets, etc) and they are pro rebuilders, so what they use is good enough for me.