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RTV on gaskets?

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sparkydave

sparkydave

Jedi Knight
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In the interest of slowing down (or eliminating) some of the oil leaks, is there any harm in adding RTV to things like the oil pan gasket and valve cover gasket? Those seem to be the primary culprits on my car, and I'm willing to put up with the necessity to redo the RTV and gasket when adjusting valves, but since it does tend to mark wherever it has been it would be nice to slow it down a little.
 
personally, I don't use RTV. However, on things like the oil pan gasket and timing chain cover gasket, etc. I do use Permatex #2 (non-hardening) on both sides of the gasket before assembly.
 
I do use RTV in obth applications.
If I have to remove the oil pan or rocker cover, it makes clean up alot easier than other sealers.

I only put the RTV on one side of the gasket to hold it in place. This way, I can reuse the gaskets several times.

Neither the oil pan or rocker cover should leak if using the paper gasket. I would check to see that the surfaces are flat and undamaged.
 
On the rocker cover gasket I do... and don't use RTV. A friend advised me to try the following on rocker covers and it's worked very well for me.

Clean the rocker cover's gasket surface until it is oil free. Apply RTV to that surface and fit the seal. Flip the cover over and place it on a FLAT surface (like a really good workbench top, plate of glass, surface plate, etc.) Wait for the RTV to cure (24 hours at least). Then put the cover back on your engine. I put a little Aviation-Form-A-Gasket on the bottom side of the valve cover gasket so it seals against the head but can easily be removed. Some of my friends skip that sealant. Anyway, by bonding the gasket to the cover while making sure that the bottom gasket surface is flat you can prevent a lot of leaks.

I use blue RTV on both sides of the oil pan gaskets.
 
I would agree that a thin layer of RTV on one side will help the leaking. On the oil pan also wrap the threads of each oil pan bolt with Teflon tape as oil can migrate down the threads and leak. I used this technique on all of my cars and they can be taken any where with out the embarrassing oil spots. You can forget the saying that British cars leak water in and oil out. Rick
 
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