valve cover gaskets

OrangeNV

OrangeNV

BISH please
Joined
Apr 16, 2010
Messages
5,043
ok for phuck sake, what are you guys doing to seal up your valve covers? ive tried putting the gaskets on cold, ive tried silcone to hold the gasket on the covers

about the only thing i havent done is a bead of silicone on the actual head

last time i had the truck out one of them started leaking and was lettin oil spray on my exhaust housing, i was so pissed but kind of relieved it was nothing serious
 
I fought that like crazy after my motor build...Gaskets siliconed to the covers with liberal amounts of rite stuff finally did it for me...
 
so lay the gasket on the ground, fill groove with silcone, press in valve cover and but a heavy weight on it, then let dry?
 
Wash the gaskets off real well. Then I like to throw them in the freezer. Seems to shrink them back up. Seems to work for me.
 
So what is the root cause of them leakin'? Crank case pressure too high? Bleed off plugged up? Or just plain hard to deal with at 6K rpms?

My brother-n-law has an 03 that leaks like a SOB...and bone stock.
 
Ive got the felt pro ones from advanced on and they havent leaked at all.
 
I've had great luck with blue or black felpro sets my dads has the blue i used to have the grey and they suck as far as i think I've never gotten any grey sets to seal real well or last
might try if u have to use silicone ultra grey not black, black never sets up well enough
-jon
 
OrangeNV said:
ok for phuck sake, what are you guys doing to seal up your valve covers? ive tried putting the gaskets on cold, ive tried silcone to hold the gasket on the covers

about the only thing i havent done is a bead of silicone on the actual head

last time i had the truck out one of them started leaking and was lettin oil spray on my exhaust housing, i was so pissed but kind of relieved it was nothing serious
Click to expand...

Is the head studded?
 
I have had issues tryin to reuse the Cummins ones. I have had to always put new on to stop the leak even without any tears. I have noticed the Cummins ones don't do worth a damn once they have oil on them. Re-usable my ass....
 
I wiped mine off real good, filled the groove with rite-stuf, lightly pressed my valve covers into them. Letm sit in the sun, metal side on the ground for a half hour or so. Then wiped off my head put them on. Seems to have sealed up fine. Although I think I gotta do my tappet cover gasket here soon.
 
I have had real good luck with the blue ones from BD and half the price of cummins.
 
I replaced my valve cover gaskets when I bought my truck 3.5 years ago. Used the gray ones from Cummins. Never leaked. I just took off my #1 cover since I did a retorque on the head about 10 months ago, had to give it a couple good whacks with my hand to get it to break the seal. Make sure everything is clean and dry, and make sure you tighten the bolt until it bottoms out on the rocker pedestal. They are shouldered bolts, so go till it stops dead.
 
guess the key to it is keeping everything clean, looks like i gotta buy a few cans of brake cleaner to get the oil off everything
 
I've had issues with the blue felpros. Had one split wide open. I was sick of it, so I bought a genuine cummins grey set, they sealed up great. Have had the valve covers off and on a few time since and still sealing good. I just wipe em down with shop towels as well as the sealing surface of the head right before I put em back on.

No sealant on mine either. And, yes, I have A1 headstuds.
 
mine are very difficult to get to seal with 14mm studs, there is no room for gasket at all. #5 and 6 on mine leak, i figure it is a way to keep some of the rust down. i have used yello gasket tack and RTV which really helped on 1-4. clean gasket, apply rtv to the groove in the gasket, let it set for a few mins and the put the cover on the gasket and place upside down for a few mins then install, torque and let dry.
 
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