Adhesives, Sealants and Cam covers

He's never built a Ferrari engine so has no points of reference to give such bad advice.

To start with eliminating the thick gasket on the chain cover could cause alignment or spacing issues. A careful examination would be required to know if that may become a problem. I know from experience that eliminating a valve cover gasket in some engine designs can cause rocker arms to hit the valve cover. Sometimes just the thickness of the gasket makes a real difference. Also if the surface of the various castings is not perfectly parallel and flat it may cause unneeded stresses in the front cover when you bolt it on. The gasket is compressible enough to help with that. It may also create a problem because of the O rings between the casting to seal water and oil. Now those O rings have to compress the amount of the gasket plus the designed in amount of crush. They are pretty hard and may not want to crush that far. I almost never put sealant over the entire valve cover gasket, but only at the corners where gaps need filling. High Tack will fail miserably at that. What High Tac will do is make getting the covers off very difficult and getting the gasket material off a living hell.

 

Many years ago, I used PTFE tape on the cam covers (nowhere else!) and had no drops/seepage for the last several years I owned the car (QM). I think I saw it described on the C/4 site. If you care deeply about concours points, then you would not use PTFE since it presents as a thick white gasket; but if you care more about your cam covers not leaking, it worked very well for me; no other goop needed. I'd be interested in Brian's take on that.

 

I always use the original type gaskets everywhere on my 330GTC, and I suppose original engines leaked a little from new. But they didn't have such great flexible sealant back then. I've been using Loctite 515 and more recently 518 on my old aluminum car and motorcycle engines for years and it's excellent. No oil leaks from the seals I've replaced. Also easy to clean these off with lacquer thinner next time you open it up. I always file or lap cover gasket surfaces prior to sealing just to get rid of any pry marks from all the hacks who worked on it over the years. Be sure to torque the bolts correctly to prevent warping the covers.

 

I use the thick green gaskets for the cam covers, and have never had a leak. No goop.

 

Find Brian K.......he will know where they come from if he doesn't sell them.

 

Yeah, where are thick green gaskets produced and who sells them?
There are a lot of Brian K's in the world.

 

If you don't know who Brian is, you haven't bought a lot of Ferrari parts.
I'm not giving out personal information. Ask around or maybe he will respond.
GT car parts may also have them.

 

Sealants go a long way to prevent leaks, but one thing that is just as important is re-torquing the cam cover nuts. After the first drive, you'll find the need to turn the nuts a good 1/3 to 1/4 turn to get up to the 5 lbs/ft. You will need to re-torque again after the third/fourth drives. After that the nuts tend to hold at 5 lbs.

john

 

Hello everyone, THE Brian K. here. Been in the Ferrari biz since 1985, so I have one year of experience repeated 31 times. Sold a few parts along the way and still selling them at T.Rutlands in ATL area. Let me know if I can help.

 

I can vouch for Brian. He is one of the best in the business!

As far as sealants, my personal preference is Anerobic sealer. I use it on just about everything. It never solidifies into chunks like RTV silicone does, so god forbid a chunk breaks loose in the motor, it wont plug oil or other passages. It also seals amazing. I have used it on water, oil, and even fuel applications.

In my experience the only thing that leaks more than a vintage Ferrari is a vintage Harley Davidson. I discovered the Anerobic through my experience working on vintage Ferraris, and now use it religiously on my personal vintage Harleys. I love the stuff!

 

Did you get my happy birthday e-mail. No idea your current e-mail or if the date was correct.........

 

I doubt that you will find any negative comments about Brian in particular. He has worked at just about every Ferrari parts department in the US........at least where its warm anyway.

 

Yes Glassman, did get the birthday greetings, thanks for remembering!
Steve, no worries, its all good. If you have any questions or need parts help, let me know.
I am happy to help!

 

Steve,

This is the exact product I've used with great success. I believe there is also a "high temp" version, but I have no experience with it. I have never has issues with this product failing due to heat issues, and I've used it in multiple applications on Ferrari engines, as well as air cooled Harleys.

https://www.permatex.com/products/gasketing/anaerobic-gasket-makers-flange-sealants/permatex-anaerobic-gasket-maker/

Let me know if you have any other questions!

 

No problem Steve! Best of luck with your project!