Has Anyone Mounted Valve Cover Gaskets Dry???

i mounted mine dry, except a little dab at the corners of the cam seal and the air pump pulley on the rear bank, and the front bank the cam seal and whatever is on the other side.

use hondabond, its great stuff. just a small dab on the open gasket parts.

 

my cam cover gaskets are mounted dry, but I put a bead of Red RTV silicone around the cam seals, they leak oil like crazy without some silicone, also put a dab of RTV at the ends of the gaskets where they terminate at the distributor housings and at the cam seals.

the cam covers will still leak a tiny bit if the gaskets are dry, so be sure to correctly line up all the parts of the gasket and carefully torque all the cam cover nuts evenly and completely,

I too hate gasket sealer, I only use RTV if I can get away with it.

 

here is where i put the hondabond.
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everything else dry.
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That exactly what I do, except I use Permatex Ultra Black RTV.

 

By looking at Geno's #2 picture it seems that it's not necessary to remove the rear distributor. Am I right? I've been putting off replacing the gasket on the rear bank of my 77 308 for fear of having to r&r the distributor since everything is so right. I also would like to permanently remove the air pump pulley, but had wondered if the pulley center was in contact with the cam seal--it appears that I was wrong. Any harm in removing it? How? I know the shaft has an allen head bolt at this end, but how do I secure the pulley so that it wont turn?
Any prior experience and advice is much appreciated.

 

I cant answer the question about the airpump pulley, I take my pump off then reinstall to pass smog so I need the pulley.

There is a chance you can take the rear cam cover off and keep the distributor gasket in place, it really depends on the condition of the distributor gasket (old, prone to cracking, etc.) and if it was mounted with gasket sealer. There is a chance if you are careful, and it isnt gooped up with gasket sealer that you can get the cam cover off just fine without messing with the dizzy.

On my car (two dizzy) i was able to get one of the cam covers off, but broke the gasket on the other which precipitated removing the distributor to redo the gasket.

I wouldnt be too troubled about removing and reinstalling the distributor. You can mark its position very carefully (dist body to engine, and cap to distributor housing), then take it off and reinstall it in the exact same position and you should be fine.

That said, I tried that method and failed, the distributor rotated in my hand and I lost the marks. But even then its not that hard to get it in the right position, throw a light on it and get it timed just fine, there are plenty of tutorials here on this site to guide the process.

 

The other thing I thought about doing, but didnt, was to remove the cam cover, carefully trim the distributor gasket off, reinstall a new dist gasket (or half of one) without taking the dizzy off, put a dab of honda bond at those intersections, and try that.

 

When I bought mine it had a broken cam cover gasket on the cockpit side head (5-8). It was dripping down on the exhaust so I had to put in a new gasket. So as I normally do with all of these paper gasket areas is to squeeze a little white grease on my finger and wipe it on the head. Then I hit the corners with a dab of RTV and put the gaskets on dry. After 6 years and time for a valve check there were no leaks and the gaskets just peeled off of the head and came of fairly easy on the covers. That's my process.

 

I also went through gasket hell removing the old gaskets. I think it took about a week of evenings laying on a plywood platform above the engine compartment. That part alone would have been worth pulling the engine. I used Hylomar for the new gaskets specifically because it's supposed to peel off easily, and I understand Hondabond is the same. Hopefully next time will be better!! No gasket leaks at all, but I do have one cam seal leak that I'll have to fix at the cam end that has the pulley for air pump (or espresso machine)

 

Everyone has their preferred route for this stuff - me personally, I use a very thin smeer of permatex aviation gasket seal on the cam cover side, and leave the engine side dry. Next time you have to take the cam covers off the gasket will come off cleanly with the cover (detach from the engine side) and you have a much easier job removing the gasket and seal from the cam cover. Related, having some gasket seal on the cam cover side helps stop the gasket from walking around through the heat cycles, so the dry side will be less prone to leak than with dry on both sides.

The first time you have to remove RTV drool from where it collects in the small oil passages (after the bearings have fried themselves) you'll think twice about using RTV anywhere on an engine. Just my $.02.
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On a related subject, I want to remove the air pump pulley from the rear exhaust cam so that I can plug up another possible source of oil leaks, so here are my questions:
1) How do I remove the pulley itself--other than the allen head bolt, I can't figure out how to dislodge the pulley or keep it from turning while removing it, and I sure don't want to lock the cam on the belt end for fear of damaging/breaking it. How does a Ferrari tech/expert do it?
2) I was planning, once the da**ed pulley is removed, to simply plug the cavity with a triangularly shaped aluminum flat cover similar to the one on the front bank. It'll clean up the looks of the engine and, as I said above, eliminate another source of oil leaks around the rear cam covers.
3) It's my belief that the torque bar to keep the engine from rocking back and forth via a valve cover anchor (bad design IMHO), plus the vibrating air pump (also by the same cam cover) are the major causes of oil leaks at said cam cover. It's inevitable that the gasket moves if the cover moves and, thus, the leaks onto the exhaust manifold and other places in back.
any advice on parts 1 and 2?

 

Somone else correct me if I'm wrong, but the exhaust side cam on the front bank is sealed. The cover you are talking about on that side helps seal that end, but there is no oil behind that cover. The oil flow is inside the cam but stops at the end of the cam itself.

The dizzy's are mounted on the ends of the cams, and have an o-ring seal on them to prevent oil from leaking past and into that little cavity behind the distributors.

You would need to rig up something similar if you want to remove that pully, and attachement/splined shaft. You need to seal theend of the cam on the rear side exhaust otherwise oil would collect in that cavity on the end of the head there and eventually leak out.

 

I also do mine as described, dry with a little sealant at the end of the gaskets and at the cam seals, as pictured.
No leaks!

 

picture, please, please!

 

I believe at my last major the gaskets went on dry.

WHile the cam seals seem prone to leak a smidge, the valve covers hang tough.

 

I've always used Hylomar on valve cover gaskets, including on my former 308. Rarely if ever get a leak. The 308 covers were spotless two years after doing the job. And the Hylomar treated gaskets are easy to remove when you have to do it again. I put a very thin coating on the gaskets, both sides, before installing. It helps to keep them in place during assembly as well.

p.s. I used Hylomar on crankcase and transmission cover gaskets as well, and no leaks there either. The only problem is finding the stuff. Most auto parts stores do not stock it, so I end up ordering it on line.

 

Another source for Hylomar is aviation supply stores. There are several grades to choose from.

Gerrit

 

#1 The safest way is to take the cam out and clamp the pulley between wooden "chops" in a vise and use a breaker bar and special socket to remove the nut. Then tap the end of the cam with a plastic hammer to remove the pulley. The pulley is cast aluminum and easily dinged up, so you need to be careful if you're going to reuse it. (if you use a punch or pipe wrench to turn the nut, you can get it off, but plan on replacing the nut. It's on TIGHT!!)

#2 I agree that the vibrating pulley is a cause of leaks. I was anal about lubricating the cam, watching the spring on the cam seal, etc. and it still drips a little oil. I like the idea of just removing the extension and making a cover plate. I didn't have the cajones to do it this time, but the smell of burning oil has convinced me to do it next time I have the covers off.

#3 I used a light smear of Hylomar on the top and bottom of the gaskets and have zero leaks other than at the one cam seal, so the torque bar doesn't seem to cause any problems. I did use an inch-pound torque wrench to tighten all of the nuts just to be sure they were all the same.

One thing I wondered about was the webbing that holds the gasket parts together for the spark plug holes. It leaves big pieces of unsupported gasket between the "islands" that can be pelted with hot oil. The gasket I took off had the webbing in place, so I left it there on the replacement gasket.