Cam cover gasket leaks

[miked]

I have been using Wellseal on both sides of my cork gasket. Been using silicon (good stuff) on rubber half moons. However I always seem to have some small runners. Could it be the case that the gasket is meant to flex and move with expansion and contraction. Does the Wellseal prevent it from moving so it lets oil seep through the metal foil section. Also do the half moons harden off or shrink? Seem to get leaks around the half moons. Got it at the front, which blows my mind since they are just a wall near the sprockets.

My breather is clean and connected to the the air box. S4 on Strom's. These are the only leaks I have after lots of recent work.

What is best advise. Nothing on cork and just silicon on half moons?? Any advice welcome. I want to see that drip tray dry!!


Mike

[gjz30075]

Any advice welcome. I want to see that drip tray dry!!

Good luck there ! Yes, its possible to get these things dry but they always seem to develop leaks over time. I found the half moons used on water cooled VW engines work well. They have a lip on either side that extends downward a small bit. A slight skim of RTV underside and its good to go. The lip will have to be trimmed for one of the rear openings.

Greg Z
'72 Sprint

[Frank Howard]

Mike,

When I rebuilt my engine, I glued the bottom of the cork gasket only, so that I could easily remove the cam cover in the future to adjust the valves and re-torque the head. A few months back, I went to remove the leaking cam cover and despite the fact that there was nothing between the top side of the gasket and the cover, the cork gasket delaminated (it is actually cork/aluminum/cork) as I removed the cover. What a piece of junk. I had another gasket on hand, but decided not to use it. Instead, I cleaned up both surfaces and applied a bead of standard household clear silicone to the head surface. Then I placed the cam cover on the head making sure that I was simply forming a flat top surface on the silicone, but not flatening it out completely. I let it sit there all night. The next morning, I installed the 8 nyloc nuts, making sure that I didn't apply a lot of pressure to the silicone.

Since then, I have had no leaks from the cam cover. None whatsoever. Some may frown on this idea because of the possibility of pieces of silicone getting into the oil passageways, but I don't see how this could happen once the silicone is cured as it did over night. The silicone is now one solid gasket that has been custom formed to fill all voids in the cam cover as well as those in the surface of the head.

The one mistake I made was that I neglected to smear a light coating of oil on the surface of the cam cover before resting it on the silicone bead making it easier to remove in the future as the oil would act as a release agent.

I believe this is a far better (and cheaper) solution to cam cover leaking problems. Anybody interested in buying a brand new cork cam cover gasket?

[gordonlund]

Cam Cover Gaskets - A very emotive subject indeed. They can only be used once!!

Once squashed they will never take a permanent seal again. Ok they delaminate on disassembly. So what, you going to destroy it anyway. The main cause of leaky cam covers is over tightening the 1/4" UNF locknuts to such an extent that they distort the cover which can take a permanant set whereby the center face semicircular adjacent to the cam wheels can be 0.030" lower than the face in front of the cam wheels. I have seen this before and can only be cured by a good machinist or a new cover. The secret is a very thin uniform layer of good quality silicon sealant (non of the bathroom stuff) absolute cleanliness (no oil film at all) and uniform recommended torque setting of the nylock nuts over rubber faced sealing washers. Leave for 24 hours before firing up. Over indulgence with silicone sealant can cause problems and has been known to fully screen oil strainers thereby starving the engine of lubricant with devastating results.

[miked]

Thanks for advice. I do not like the cork laminted business. I think oil actually passes through the lamiations. I will have ago at the silicone only one. Sounds good to me with care and overnight cure.

If my memory serves me I noted on a video showing Paul Matty that they do them dry! Just silicone on the half moons.
On normal cars my old man just use to put a smear of grease. Fair enough, not as much oil lashing about!

Mike

[rgh0]

The cam cover gaskets I have been using from the Elan Factory are solid cork and seem to seal well. I normally use a little silicone on the half moons and stick the gasket to the head using Loctite aviation gasket cement No3 and leave the top dry so the cam cover can be removed without replacing the gasket.

This is normally good for multiple cover removals without leaking if care is taken not to over tighten the cover.

regards
Rohan