Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi all.

I've had a minor leak from one of the half moons on my +2 Cam cover for a while now and i'm thinking of finally getting it done.... It's easy enough to do but i have noticed a rubber cam cover gasket doing the rounds and wondered if anyone had used one? / had an opinion on them?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122056312171? ... EBIDX%3AIT

The Cork gaskets are not the best but i get the Burton gasket which comes as a precut sheet so there is no deformity to it but i do kinda like the idea of a gasket that doesn't seep over time. I tried the Cometic gasket and i wasn't impressed.

I have some Permatex Aviation liquid gasket that will seal just about any gasket but i thought i'd ask if anyone had experience with these rubber ones.

Hi folks,

That's an interesting idea, after using rubber gaskets for similar jobs on other cars I've wondered why no-one has turned out one for the TC. And now it seems someone has, well spotted sir !

So, anyone got one then and are they re-usable ? I think I gave around ?8 for the last one from QED so ?30 is like buying 4 OEM ones. Are they 4x better or last 4x longer ? I'd like to hope so..... a neat idea.

Brian

?30.00 for a rubber gasket,you must be barmy,get a ?1.00 tube of silicone and make it yourself,squirt and form a V shaped bead of silicone on a clean cam cover and gently lay to rest on an oiled head.....leave for as long as it takes to set ( go off ). Different mixes have different grades of modulus and differing curing times
You now have a made to measure silicone gasket permanently fixed to the cover,has worked for me for years..

John

Which type of silicone have you used John, the usual Halfords tubes ? I'm tempted to give that a go.

Brian

ps ?30 sounds steep, but it's going to sell in relatively low numbers these days. So assuming the rubber chosen doesn't harden in use and it can be re-used, I don't think it's out of the way.

Low modulus Black,second favourite is Aluminium...some I have tried have taken ages to " go off" but that is what happens when you buy cheap..

Prefer Wickes over Halfrauds anytime,same product ,half the price.

John

A lad at work did that to his Alfa using Permatex Ultra Grey (think thats what it's called) i know he tried two or three times to get it off but to my knowledge failed I think it got to the stage that the weeping head gasket wasn't as much of a pain as he thought and the cam cover didn't leak so he left it for some one else to find in the future (that will be a nice surprise)

I think the moral is don't use too good a quality Sealer

That's why you have the cam cover clean and dry and oil the head, so that the cover has the rubber gasket attached..

John

I don't know exactly how it came about as i only saw the aftermath but if you ever want to prank some one that's a cracker. He may as well have used sikaflex.

Another alternative is to glue the cork gasket to the cam cover with silicone. Lay a bead on the cover only and lightly install the cork, either setting the cover assembly on the head with light pressure or preferably on a surface plate to cure for a day. It glues the gasket in place perfectly flat and allows for a bit if compression of the cork if required when torqued up. I've used this method on several cam covers with success. Not my idea but it worked for me.

I'm about to use one of the Cometic cam cover gaskets - dry for both sides I guess?

When i fitted my Cometic gasket I just put a smear of RTV on the half moons but left the rest dry (as i was instructed) and it leaked badly across the front edge of the cam cover. So i tried to take it off and the areas RTV had made contact the Black coating separated from the metal gasket..... so it ended up being used for aprox 20 mins before getting binned.


Note, it looks like it's leaking from the half moons but it's actually leaking from the front edge of the gasket. It also leaked from the back corner of the exhaust side too.

I think i'm going to go with John's suggestion (just maybe not using Ultra Grey )

Similar experience with the Cometic gasket, except I could see the gap before I ran the engine, so I removed it. The cam cover really needs to be perfectly true for this gasket to seal properly, whereas the cork gasket will cope.

Hi

Stuck my cork gasket to the cover with Permatex aviation forma gasket No3, when set, oil the gasket face before fitting
completely oil tight every time and easy to remove

Just found a Burton Gasket in the garage, if you haven't seen one you get next to no distortion because of how it's shipped complete with all the off cuts.

I had the same problem with a Cometic gasket, and a not so true cam cover. I wound up filling the low spots with JB Weld. Then set the cover on some cling wrap on a flat surface until cured. Used some contact spray cement to glue down several sheets of abrasive paper to the flat surface. Sanded down the whole mating surface, using a figure eight pattern, until everything was nice and true. Cork gasket glued to the cam cover and oil on the cork to head surface. No more leaks.