• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

oil leaking from engine side covers

Share this page

I think a gasket--esp. silicone--makes sense where they have to be removed fairly often, like on a valve cover. Sealants have to be cleaned off and reapplied.

Besides that, "don't blow a gasket" sounds cooler than "don't seep your sealant."
 
Hey Bob,

IF the silicone gaskets are put on dry, I agree with your comment. If they are installed using a sealant, I still don't see the point of adding a gasket for low pressure fluid retention.

Tim
 
I think old habits die hard. I've been tempted to use only a sealant on many occasions, but usually chicken out and use a gasket, usually with a thin coat of sealant on both sides. I'm more comfortable using only a sealant when mating two machined surfaces. However, I'm always concerned about using the right amount of sealant--enough to get a complete seal, but no so much that some of it breaks off and gets in a passageway. If one side is sheetmetal, I use a gasket. The people who sell the silicone valve cover gasket recommend gluing one side to the cover--it's curved--and leaving the other dry.

An interesting example is an aircraft engine crankcase, which is split. Both sides are machined flat and smooth, and the recommended (required) procedure is to use sealant with a thin silk thread as a gasket. Belt and suspenders, I suppose.
 
When used with sealant, every gasket presents 4 interfaces that can leak. Eliminating the gasket and sealing with sealant only presents 2 interfaces that can leak,

Well TIM,that reminds me of an old hypothesis:
Which states that: a Hypothesis can be proven true even though the premise is false.----Keoke- :wink:
 
Keoke said:
a Hypothesis can be proven true even though the premise is false.
Click to expand...

Keoke,

Please explain what premise is false. Use a PM or email if you'd like, so we don't bore everybody else with a perhaps senseless discussion.

Other than that, I'm going to quit trying to save the world.......

Tim
 
Bob_Spidell said:
I think old habits die hard.
Click to expand...

Hi Bob,

I think you hit the nail on the head. It is a HUGE leap-of-faith the first time you seal a joint without a gasket.

If I handn't seen it done, I probably wouldn't have tried it either.

Tim
 
Back
Top