classic gasket alternatives

[Flyingpony]

To be the odd man out - I've built motors with only head gaskets, crank seals, intake gaskets and silicone, on some I used the water-pump gaskets as well.

I must be even more of an odd man. Sometimes (depending on application), I've used the thick cardboard you find on the back of notepads

[stanko]

Is it really common practice to use silicon / RTV when using gaskets? Maybe if you are re-using them. On my RD350LC I dont use a head gasket, just RTV although the surfaces were lapped first and the rest of the gaskets go on dry.

[Ixion]

I cannot let this trhead go past without mentioning shellac. Wonderful stuff.

[Motu]

Not on your balls it isn't!

[Ixion]

My balls don't leak , so I never needed it there. Let me guess, there was this skinny little 'prentice boy, right ? And a bunch of traditionalists in the workshop . And you didn't come back with the striped paint they sent you for.

[Motu]

Not my balls! But I know guys who had it done to them.Shellac is good stuff,pity you can't get the real stuff now....although you can get shellac flakes and mix it in meths to whatever consistency you like.It's still used to seat pads into saxophones and clarinets....just a little heat under the valve and you can move the pad to get a good seating.

When I worked on compressors the boss made us use shellac - "I know it's horrible shit,but I don't want any of these things coming back with oil leaks''.When I fitted a new top end on my TM400 it kept blowing out the base gasket - a shit load of crankcase compression.I was using that silly silicone shit....so I glued it down with shellac and that was that.

[Ixion]

I've always mixed my own. But I did get a little bottle premixed of the proper stuff about a year ago.

[Big Dog]

Pays to read the manufacturer instructions some have compounds between the sheets of material designed to soften and expand under use.
My last head gasked on a 4.1 recomended that it be put in place clean and driven at low revs until maximum temperature is achieved for 1/2 an hour or so before allowing to cool and draining the water and replacing the coolant as the compounds do not work properly when in the prescence of Glycol.

[Motu]

Yep - most modern gaskets have a heat setting sealer impregnated...that's why you can't get the bloody things off when you didn't even use gasket goop.Actualy it's one reason why I use silicone.so I can remove a gasket easily.Head gaskets are the same,and glycol can attack the sealer - so we put them through a couple of heat cycles with plain water before adding inhibitor.