Technical Tricks for cork and paper gaskets

So, with the majority of the engines we deal with don’t have the option of the nice rubber gaskets for oil pans and valve covers etc.

What are some of the tricks/products that guys swore by back in the day?

I always used RTV but sometimes I think that was counterproductive.

Thoughts?

 

The biggest trick for cork is clean , smooth , flat surfaces .

valve covers and oil pans smooth and flat , bolt holes peened flat or outwards so the gasket can squish correctly .

washers under the bolt heads or those long metal thingys
These guys


The biggest thing is torque , snug is snug plus an 1/8 to 1/4 turn . Check again after putting a few miles on the ride if it needs to be torqued again .

I’ve used grease on cork gaskets to help seal them
As well as a thin skin of rtv on both sides .


paper gaskets I’ll use gasket shellac ,
The newer gasket spray
Or rtv if I need to stand on my head to get the part in place

same thing as cork , clean , flat and smooth surfaces work best .


Lately I have been using the loctite anaerobic sealer on a lot of stuff at work with great success or “ The right stuff” silicone gasket maker .

 

I use weather strip adhesive (gorilla snot) to attach cork gaskets to valve covers on some engines. Tightening the retaining screws frequently is the biggest thing, they loosen as the gasket compresses over time.

For other gaskets, I generally use Permatex Aviation gasket sealer. Only use RTV on corners of pan gaskets, things like that.

 

I'm a firm believer that nothing seals like a nice cork gasket. I'll always choose cork over rubber if I have the option. I agree with the others that say a clean surface free of oils and debris is the key to getting a good seal. For oil pans, I will use a very thin coat of Ultra Black mainly to simply set the gasket in place, with a squirt of sealer in corners.

 

Personally, I try to buy stud kits from ARP for oil pans and valve covers. It keeps everything lined up.

 

Same here. If the mating surfaces are reasonably smooth, the aviation gasket sealer gets used on just about every gasket.

 

I knew one of the best Harley engine builders in the country . I witnessed him do numerous gaskets , he would coat with Indian Head sealer , the apply a piece on thin thin string to the center of the sealer / gasket and allow to get super tacky . Once what he said was ready , together it would go . Never experienced on case leak on the old dudes .

 

I do them different depending on where they are. 3M weatherstrip adhesive on valve cover gaskets to the valve cover, some OE black rtv in the corners of a pan gasket, thin coat of the same OE black on water pump, timing cover, etc.

 

I use some adhesive on the valve cover side also. Makes removal easier for inspecting or adjusting.

 

Gorilla snot, or at a pinch silicon gasket maker, to glue the gaskets to oil pans, valve covers and side plates. Do this on the bench, using the bolts temporarily as pegs to align the gasket. Aviation form-a-gasket on the other side. Makes covers easy to remove for tuning/servicing, and easy to put back on without the gasket shifting around (especially side plates).

Cheers,
Harv

 

After reading this thread, I am now a gasket installer extraordinaire.

Well, I already was.
But you guys are thorough.
(as always)
I can't think of another thing.

 

I,ve made my own cork or paper gaskets for years using a stanley knife with new blade on a flat piece of clean steel plate . Then a correct size hole punch. BUT ,, the real advice is while holding that cork or paper sheet down never have your fingers in front of that sharp knife . BTW, i have all 10

 

Good stuff guys.

 

A pipeline mechanic once lived next door . He used all Catapillar sealing products. There was one that was green . It would stick snot to a glass door knob . If it got on your hands there was no removing it . You wore it off . I wish he hadn’t moved away .

 

I like to make studs out of Grade 8 threaded rod. I make the bare minimum number of studs to "hang" whatever gasket or cover I'm dealing with and I make one longer than the other. You get the long one on and the assembly can pivot about it until you line up the second one and you're good to go from there. Not really all that necessary for a valve cover for an inline but it's a godsend for transmission pans.

Having big specialty washers to spread the load on the edge of the pan is also a great help. I've made more than a few of them using old gaskets as a template in order to make up for snapped off bolts in an oil pan or trans pan.

 

I use 3M gorilla snot too. I like to "tie" valve cover gaskets in place with heavy sewing thread or very thin wire. A little insurance policy if you can't wait for the glue to dry. I recently discovered The Right Stuff gasket maker/sealer. Good for the front and back rails of aluminum intakes. Mask off where you don't want the sealer to go.

 

My tip is to punch your holes prior to trimming the gasket to size, paper gasket material has a tendency to tear open at the hole edge.

 

A little truck I learned to use when you don't have any adhesive available is to take some sewing thread and lightly tie the gasket to the pan or cover you are installing. You don't want to cut into the gasket, just keep it in place.

 

Good example. The 365/390 Caddy oil pan gaskets have cork end pieces, rather than the rubber ends like a sbc. Looks like a prime place to leak.

 

At the radiator shop, we would use gasket tape. It comes on a roll about 3/4" wide, cork with an adhesive backing. You stick it on, feel for where the holes go and open them up with a rotary burr tool on your cordless drill. Real easy and necessary since your chances of finding a tank gasket for an odd duck 1949 Perkins is slim.

 

I've used Indian Head Shellac for about 105 years now but only to hold the gasket in place while assembling.

Rule of thumb:

• RTV or silicone is a GASKET MAKER only for if you don't have a gasket or need to fill a void. And you're supposed to let it cure on the part you're sealing before assembly.
• Shellac or gorilla snot is for when you have a gasket and is mostly just to hold the gasket in place, on one side, while you're assembling things.
• NEVER NEVER NEVER use RTV on a rubber gasket! When you tighten things down that RTV is going to act like a lubricant and push the gasket away from what you want to seal.

On top of that, nobody likes to look at or have to deal with removing big globs of orange boogers.

When Marvin (my mentor, educator, and the best damned machinist in the world [rest his soul] that took me under his wing in the 80s) needed to make a paper gasket, he would hold the gasket in place by hand and use a ballbpeen hammer to lightly tap around the edge of the part, cutting the gasket as it went. Pretty slick the way it worked.

 

Great summary, thanks

I use the ball peen hammer trick often...did it just last week, in fact. Needed to make a gasket for the blower pop off valve, at a dragstrip

 

My go to ball peen hammer for making paper gaskets.

 

I use the 8001 3-M gorilla snot on cork gaskets after I straighten the surfaces ( Valve covers) and clean them perfectly! I apply the gasket as soon as I put the 3-m stuff on then hold the gasket in place with many clothes pins! Then I go home for the night. The next day I put silicone sealer on the gaskets and immediately install the covers. I tighten them down with a socket on a screwdriver type handle. And let set, preferably for a day. I then warm up the engine and let it cool, then retighten the bolts, screw driver tight. I have never had one leak doing this method, in over fifty years!








Bones

 

I deal with a lot of automatic and manual transmission gaskets. I only use cork trans pan gaskets, no sealer. Duraprene cardboard type pan gaskets and sorta felt type material gaskets suck. Make sure the gasket rail is clean and as straight as possible. Rarely do I have one that will leak.

Cork valve cover gaskets most of the time glued to the valve cover ahead of time with weatherstrip adhesive and cured, mainly so the gasket will stay in place while installing dry to the head.

Cork engine oil pan gaskets I use Permatex #2 and Permatex Ultra Black RTV at the corners. Oil pan rails are usually not a very wide surface and usually dont fit all that wonderful.

If the gasket is a thicker paper material like a Fel Pro water pump gasket on Chevys, I use Permatex #2

I don't like to use gaskets that are made from material made and marked by Interface Co. They are a thicker black sorta felt type material as I feel they wick oil right through them. They are now being used in many vintage transmission applications such as early Hydramatics.

Muncie and BW T10 transmissions have paper thin gaskets between the case and mid plate and mid plate to tail housing and shift cover. Almost all leak somewhat from these locations. Rarely do you see one that is not leaking.
Automatics have these paper thin gaskets also in various locations.

I believe the thin gasket paper material/quality back in the day to now is not the same.

With these paper thin gaskets, I have tried every sealer known to man including Yamabond and still got some leak/seepage sometimes.

I felt that the leaks/seepage is not from the actual gasket mating surface, but wicking right through the paper.

Fel Pro blue paper gasket material is an excellent gasket paper that doesn't wick, that you can buy in sheets or rolls.

Now, you may think I'm totally crazy and lost my mind, but I did an experiment years ago on one of my Muncie transmissions to stop these damn seepage/leaks.
I painted both sides of the paper gaskets with Rustoleum gloss black spray paint. You can actually see the paint soak into the paper. Let it cure for a while, and just before assembly, sprayed it again and assemble. It has never seeped/leaked.
Since then I have never had another Muncie or T10 or automatic leak from these spots with these thin paper gaskets.

If you don't believe me, try it for yourself with these crappy thin paper gaskets. You will see the paint soak right into the paper. I believe the paint seals the paper and stops the seepage.

There are some better/different quality paper gaskets that the paint dosen't seem to soak in to the paper but most do, I still spray them.

Bill

 

I use aviation gasket maker. The thick brown slop. It soaks into the gasket and keeps it malleable. If you have to pull it apart in the future, it usually peels off so you can reuse the gasket.

Plus, I like the way it smells

 

Yep, the aviation stuff is one of my go-tos also. I do the same as Jim with RTV.

What Bones is more-or-less saying here is don't overtighten. If you look up and use the torques specs for these smaller fasteners, you'll find that won't be a problem. You will need an inch-pound torque wrench (preferably a click type) but I've found that doing this fixes a lot of sealing issues, both initially and into the future. I'll do a 'center out' pattern when tightening and repeat it three times, letting the gasket compress for a bit between times. No matter how 'calibrated' you think your wrist is, it isn't... LOL.

One product not mentioned is Yamaha's Yamabond. This is great stuff for some applications. It appears to be a RTV but isn't. But for machined surfaces or even just smooth flat ones (not rough cast), this can replace gaskets. It's runny, so forget trying to fill big gaps, but used right (sparingly) on clean/dry surfaces I've never had a leak. It has one property I've never seen with any other sealer. Unlike other sealers that when they squeeze out leave 'strings' that can come loose and make a mess, this will actually flow onto the adjoining surfaces forming a 'T' shape, no 'strings'. This would be great for things like aluminum valve covers or transmission pans but can be used on sheetmetal covers as long as they're flat. The one downside to it is it has a definite shelf life once the tube is opened (six months?), I have yet to manage to use up the whole tube before it goes bad.

 

Skip the gaskets and you won't have that issue....

 

Another thing I've been doing lately, is remembering that old cars usually leaked when they were young, and it wasn't a big deal. I've grown tolerant of minor leaks on my old cars, especially the ones that I don't intend to keep long.

 

Made me smile. Pink hand cleaner, fishoil, kerosene and Aviation Form-a-Gasket all make me think of my father.

Cheers,
Harv