Hitchcocks Forum

I’ve just had the timing cover/primary and gearbox case polished on my 63 Interceptor and wondering if you guys would recommend using a sealer as well as using the gaskets on the above?
Any recommendations appreciated
Thanks
Steve

Hi Steve
You will get mixed replies to this one
Personally I use grease on one side of the gasket and a sealant on the other
For outer cases i put grease on the engine side
But others will have different views on this
Cheers Dai

Too late to edit again

Should have said use only the tiniest amount of sealant

Personally I won't use any silicone sealants I use either hylomar blue or Hylotyte red (seems to be the same as the old red hermatite)

Hope this helps Dai

Sealants are only to be used if the mating surfaces are not good IMHO.
If you have good surfaces or can make them good by sanding, just grease both sides.
You don't need a surface plate; a piece of MDF will do as long as it's not warped - the thicker the better.
Stick some wet and dry on and gentle sand the mating surface flat.
There are times when you can't really do this when the engine isn't dismantled enough - that's when sealer comes in.

It is my belief that a seal is made with a gasket or compound. Never both. A smear of grease on each side will let you use the gasket again and again. Stick it on with compound and it will likely be torn when you dismantle meaning you have to waste time cleaning the mess up and then fit a new one.

Thanks for the reply

It can sometimes be difficult to keep a large, delicate gasket in place while the second component is fitted. If that’s the case, I may decide to use a smear of sealant as adhesive. But which side to stick it? Because gaskets do sometimes rip when being removed, I consider how difficult it will be to clean off in future; I’ve found it’s often easier to clean the remains from the component which will be removed, such as the cover in your case, so I might prefer to stick it to that.

I’ve just refitted a modified cylinder head to the three cylinder engine of my supercharged trials car. I have reduced the CR by fitting an aluminium decompression plate. I had to “stick” the plate to the cylinder head with Wellseal and also use a small amount of it to hold the head gasket in place below that, while I turned it the right way up and lowered the head onto the block. Normally the gasket would be fitted to the block and the head fitted onto locating studs. On this engine, there is nothing on the block to locate the gasket with (it has long through bolts fitted from above) and I was very concerned that I might misalign it then damage it. Quite tricky

Wheaters, grease usually keeps things in place and makes gaskets easier to clean off next time.

Yes, I often grease the non-sticky side.

Clean the metal surfaces with acetone. Blue hylomar on the metal surface to be fitted to crankcase and gearbox only and leave the other metal surface clean surface. If the other surface is in good condition you don't near gasket goo or grease. This means that you can take it apart easily, rip off the old gasket and fit a new one after cleaning the metal surface easily. The key to a good oil seal are flat non-warped, non-scratched surfaces. After years of use alloy can warp and the only way to deal with that is the use grinding paste and water on a plate glass plate to grind both mating surfaces flat once more. Never use a used gasket; cut a new one every time. If you have to scrape off an old gasket and gasket goo use a wooden scraper that is softer than the metal of the object being scraped.