Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Hi,

i am not sure about the right fitting of the cork gasket.
First i "glued" the cork gasket with silicone on to the cam cover to get it in the right position.
Now i am not sure if i need silicone also between head and cork.
Whats recommended?

Thanks
Mario

I've used silicone there, but the wise heads on this forum suggest fastening one side with silicone as you have done then use a non-setting gasket paste on the other side of the gasket.

Thanks for the good news, are there any recommentations for "non-setting gaskets".

Mario

Have a plough through this lot:

http://www.lotuselan.net/cgi-bin/search ... oom_sort=0

Wellseal?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STAG-WELLSEAL ... Swux5YQDrA

John

Welseal or blue Hylomar are perfectly adequate here. Silicone will just squash out and eventually fall into the oilways, causing all sorts of potential problems, even if you let it set first. Personally I don't use silicone on any gasket surfaces apart from occasionally on the sumps of our buses. Certainly never on a Twin Cam.

It can be tricky to keep the cork cam cover gasket in the right position; Hylomar sets quite sticky quite quickly and will hold it in place on the cam cover, whereas Welseal takes a little longer, but neither set solid like silicone.

JMO

Nigel F.

Wellseal every time. I detest meticulously scraping the old silicone away every time the cover comes off. The Wellseal seems to work better anyway and is easily removed with meths or WD40. I had to instruct Paul Matty to use it when they had my car in for a water pump change as they always use silicone (the bathroom variety by the looks of it) and it gets everywhere.

I do use a bit of hight temp RTV on the cam bore plugs but as I recall, I only needed the Wellseal on the cover face - the gasket to head side I fitted dry and there were no leaks.

Robbie

I don't really use silicone, it was Easy Gasket (based on synthetic rubber):

http://www.innotecworld.com/products/se ... oductid=21

12x24 chunk of neoprene, about 25 bucks, lasts forever, no silicone, dry as a bone for a decade

gus wrote:12x24 chunk of neoprene, about 25 bucks, lasts forever, no silicone, dry as a bone for a decade

What kind of neoprene do you mean, is it EPDM - Neopren?

... and how did you cut it to shape?
I can see the outer outline being east but the inner?

John

I bought a 500 X 500 sheet from here. - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/262795519259

Cutting the outside was simply enough and the inside I just cut 10mm inside the outside line. If it overhangs the inside casing a little it does not matter.

It is tricky to stick in place however. Neither silicone nor hylomar adheres to it for long. I shall be trying wellseal and Permatex 80019 Aviation Form-A-Gasket No. 3 next.

However it seals completely -the cam numbers on the head are clearly visible on the gasket! And I slipped 5mm O rings over the fixing studs under a plain washer. They squeeze down into the gap. Also it is not necessary to tighten the nuts down much to acheive a seal.

All good - so far!

I am seriously considering cutting a gasket for the chaincase / head joint to replace the dubious cork thing.

What thickness did you buy?

saildrive2001 wrote:What thickness did you buy?

2 mm.

There is an image of it. The cam support numbers can be seen on the surface.

Mario

I use a cork gasket stick it to the cover allow it to set then oil the gasket face
The adhesive is Permatex High tack Gasket sealant

Does not leak and is re usable just be careful when removing