Eliminating paper gaskets

I’m not sure if this applies to others but whenever I rebuilt the Lancia Scorpion engines (same as Fiat) the parts that uses paper gasket, before I install the gaskets I always soak it in motor oil before putting the two parts together and for reason, it has never leak a drop even after thousands of miles of use.

 

Hylomar Universal Blue worked well on my 308 oil pan and tranny lower cover. No leaks. Easy to use and does not harden.

http://hylomar.com/product-documents/

 

I always thought sealants were used where the surfaces are not flat enough. Of course, sometimes it is necessary to use a sealant when there is no time or too expensive to get the surfaces with the correct roughness.

For instance, it took me hours and hours to get rid of the old gasket material from the intake ports without damaging the surface ... but it was worth it. The original machining marks appeared, which was my goal.

 

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Yes I have and the one that works best for me are these two, the HondaBond and the ThreeBond (TB1184)
I have used the ThreeBond both on my QV oil pan gasket and the transmission pan gasket five years ago and
Hasn’t leak a drop since. Really good stuff I highly recommend it.

 

Take a look at the Loctite catalogs.

https://dm.henkel-dam.com/is/content/henkel/188754%20AAM_CATALOG%20low%20res%20PROOFpdf

https://dm.henkel-dam.com/is/content/henkel/auto-maintenance-do-it-rightpdf

 

Thought about putting a light coat of Hondabond on my water pump gasket but a little reluctant to do so as I’m not sure how well it will clean off when the next water pump replacement comes around. Thoughts? Used Hylomar on the cam cover gaskets of my old GTB QV and it worked great but having a hard time finding the same Type. Will do as Im2504me suggested and look for the universal blue.

 

Seems good in theory. Not sure what problem it solves though.

I removed my oil pan earlier this year I discovered a machining error in one of the corners. There is a step which made it unlikely that the paper gasket would seal there. I used Loctite 574 on that area. It is an anaerobic sealant rather than an RTV so no "worms" but wonder how hard the oil pan will be to remove next time. … I used Loctite 574 in other places too.

Anyone have experience with Loctite 574?​

 

Some parts are machined with the thickness of the gaskets as part of the design. I don't think you could eliminate the cam cover gaskets, for example. The cam seal carriers have to sit in round holes and eliminating the gasket would make those holes squished. The water pump gasket sets the distance from the impeller to the body. Eliminating this might make that space less than optimal, maybe even make contact? Might also make it pump better, I dunno. No intake gaskets (on FI) would make the runners not quite land in the intended spot on the plenum.

I just bought my first tube of Hondabond, still unopened, but generally I use the slightest amount of sealant possible on gasket faces.

 

As leak-prone as a 308 is, I would not try to resolve it by eliminating all the gaskets and using sealants instead.

 

FWIW, way back in the late '70's a shop I worked with in Memphis, TN quit using any gaskets other than head gaskets and intake manifold gaskets (or O-ring sealing surfaces) on any engine/transmission they worked on/rebuilt. They used Permatex anaerobic gasket sealer which come out in the mid- '70s. I am not aware of any subsequent issues/problems with any work they did.