Hitchcocks Forum

Am now ready to reassemble my crankcases. When i dismantled them, there was no gasket, but grey gasket sealant. should i use a gasket or use sealant or both?
I do have a aftermarket pattern gasket, blue Hylomar, and a unopened tube of Michel gasket cement (left over from my two stroke days).
The engine was oil tight before disassembly.
many thanks.

Assuming your joint faces are still good, I'd just use a good sealant, something like ThreeBond liquid gasket, not sure if our hosts sell it, but it's not hard to find on line if not.

A.

Threebond is what all the japs use on their crankcases. Seems to work well.

I use permabond A136 which smells like red liquorice and remains totally liquid until it's compressed. Not like other things that claim to remain liquid then set in a few minutes (I'm looking at you blue hylomar), you can apply this as a bead or with a brush and wipe it off with a cloth even days after. I apply it with a brush then wipe round the "inside" edges with a cloth so you don't get any squeeze-out. Even if you do get squeeze-out, it stays liquid. The stuff is a delight to work with, if you mess it up, you just wipe it off with a paper towel and start again.

I have just rebuilt an Electra X engine and seeing as a gasket is listed in the online parts books here, for all years, I fitted a crankcase gasket. I also rebuilt another Electra X engine a few years ago and fitted a gasket to that one as well.

Adrian wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 31, 2021 8:30 pm

Assuming your joint faces are still good, I'd just use a good sealant, something like ThreeBond liquid gasket, not sure if our hosts sell it, but it's not hard to find on line if not.

A.

Never used that stuff. Is it silicone based?

They list a few liquid gaskets.

Which one would you recommend Adrian, or should I say which have you used? I’m guessing possibly https://threebond-europe.com/products/tb1102/

I think it's that one.

It's a bit confusing for the Electra-X as they all seem to have been assembled at the factory without a gasket between the crankcase halves, like the Redditch Bullets, but our hosts' on-line parts book lists a crankcase gasket, so which is it?

If the crankcases were intended to be fitted without a gasket and the engine ran fine without one I'd keep things as they were, but if you think it probably should have one like the other pre-EFI Indian Bullets do, it's up to you. There's a teeny increase in width of the crankcases as a result, in theory that could affect the fit of the cylinder barrel on its studs or pull the crankshaft over to the left slightly when the bottom end is built up, but as Bullet Whisper has built a couple of Electra-X engines successfully WITH the crankcase gasket, it would appear to be a non-issue.

That said my AVL/Electra-X hybrid project engine is using a set of non-Electra-X crankcases, so that one definitely will have the gasket.

A.

I thank you all for your advice, but before I reassemble the crankcases i have a problem.
when i removed the two screw in gauze filters from the engine (one from the oil tank, the other from the crankcase) the oil tank one came out ok, the other came apart and left the metal circular end in the casing. i have tried to hook it out to no avail, maybe weld a woodscrew to a T bar and try to retrieve it that way.

The end of the gauze? Should be steel?

Maybe get hold if it with a strong magnet? Or blow compressed air back down the oilway?