IML: Valve Cover Gasket 401

["Eric" <gearhead@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe, I'm glad to see that you are enjoying the hobby/mania/insanity!  :-)

A note about the valve cover gaskets. I've found that a wire brush on my 
drill and some solvent will easily remove the old gasket material stuck on 
the inside lip of the valve covers. When clean, the area around the bolt 
holes are invariably distorted, so I press down the metal of the lip around 
the mounting holes in my vice to flatten it so its a flat fit to the head 
mating surface.
When flat, I spread sealant on the valve cover inside lip and set in 
position a gasket and let the sealant set-up over night. I do this as I've 
often seen where the gasket will buckle and lose it's seal when torqued 
down. When it's let to set-up, the sealant cements the gasket in the correct 
position and holds it that way when torquing down the hold down nuts. I coat 
the bottom side of the gasket w/sealant and mount to the head and torque to 
spec. This has solved many of my 
valve-cover-gasket-replacements-that-still-leaked situations. Oh, I forgot 
to squeeze in the part about the wire brushing the loose paint off and 
priming and painting with the correct color. It's gotta look like you've 
been doing some real work, afterall.
Enjoy!

Eric
Portland, Oregon
**********************************
Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 10:29:20 -0500
From: JosephStil@xxxxxxx
Subject: IML: Getting to the master cylinder -- is there some secret?
Reply-To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Happy New Year y'all:

After rough idling for several minutes, she settled right in to a nice 
smooth idle, though I have a problem with either the valve cover gaskets 
leaking or I have an exhaust leak (or both) because she is spitting some 
smoke from that general area on each side of the engine.  Valve cover 
gaskets aren't that hard to replace are they?

Joe
Allen, Texas
'61 Crown Southampton
Go Sooners!!!!  Beat USC for the NCAA football national championship!!!!!



-----------------  http://www.imperialclub.com  -----------------
This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please 
reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be 
shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the
Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm