Head gaskets

I must be in in the Twilight Zone.....I had read this thread earlier tonight after doing a search for Head Bolt Sealant. What are the chances that it got resurrected same night!

I used no sealant or oil on my head bolts about an hour ago, just chased the threads & tap. No leaks yet.

 

You can refer to the ARP fasteners website and catalog to see a comparison between using standard 30 wt. motor oil versus their own brand of moly lube. I believe they recomend some form of lubricant on all head bolts as well as rod and intake bolts. If not lubricated, you will get a very inacurate torque reading.

The head bolts can be reused as long as they have never been over-torqued and stressed beyond their yield point. Some newer vehicles use head bolts that are intentionally torqued to the yield point of the material. If the bolt is more than .001" longer than original length, it is no good.

I think the thread sealant that was referred to is only when going into a water passage. Have seen them leak alot when not sealed. High temp RTV is always my safe bet.

Hope this helps out, have been doing research on the head bolt question for some reports.

 

Are you talking about Anti-Sieze, Mike? Or something else?

 

X2 just checked out the chart and I agree using a special lubricant or 30-wt oil is the proper thing to do.

 

Don't put nothin' on that head gasket. The sealer was required way back when the head gaskets were bare metal...

 

If I remember right is permatex 3H gasket sealer and thread sealer. it is designed for aircraft use. A local hot rodder and engine builder swore by the stuff and had used it on 100's of engines. I figure aircraft engines require the the most attention to detail so what the heck, it worked great.

 

The product I think you are refering to is aircraft form-a-gasket. In aircraft engines it is used to seal the two case halves together in conjunction with silk thread. Both Continental and Lycoming caution you to NOT use it with a gasket. Mike

 

Hmmm, I used it extensively during Old Bill's rebuild, including pumpkins, Xfer, tranny, and engine. Works MUCH better than RTV IMHO. So far, nothing more than a small drop at the drain plugs.

We are talking about the molasses lookin' stuff, right?

 

:twisted: R) R)

 

Yup that be the stuff. I have also run across many people that used it on thier engine rebuilds and I would agree that it is a vast improvement over RTV, which by the way has brought many an airplane to an early unscheduled landing. My personal view is to follow the manufactures recomendations when it comes to gaskets. Aircraft gaskets are only made for/by the engine maker so YMMV when using in an automotive application. Also there are no head gaskets on aircraft engines and 99.9%are air cooled. Mike

 

Well I didn't use it on head gaskets, from my experience unless you have a 30 year old head gasket laying around virtually all new head gaskets for autos are to be put on as is. But I did use it on the water pump, timing cover, fuel pump, pan gasket and most all the bolt threads.