Sealant, Silicone, RTV, whatever else...

What job are you doing mate?

 

Blue RTV to seal connections where coolant is involved, e.g. hose, sensor.

 

I am in the comercial aviation biz. We have this grey RTV that is unreal. Super stuff. But for the life of me. I can't think of any applications to the F car. You could build a house with this stuff. I have some tubes that are expired but still good. Need some? Just Postage.

 

This is similar to the question of which Loctite to use, where you also have 245, green, red, blue, etc. The applications are different and for most of the time on the relevant company's website

I have used blue, black and grey RTV as well, I generally just grab what I have lying around. Mostly black, which has worked well for both oil and coolant applications. I agree the grey worked great because it's not as smelly and just looks better.
Most importantly, use as little of it as possible so it doesn't get squeezed inside your motor and oil passages.

 

Does this help? Here's the download link for the screenshot depicted...

http://www.permatex.com/documents/GasketMakerSelector.pdf

BTW, I found the link in the Garage Journal Forum.
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I will have to look in my files to see if I can find a picture of the last 330GTC engine when it came apart. Seven different color's of silicone worms covering the oil pickup screen. Quite a sight!

 

Dave , you are absolutely correct, I think RTV is terrible. We use Toyota FIPG (formed in place gasket)sealant for most gasket sealant repairs. I've seen RTV clog water and oil passages, in fact they can travel through an engine clog an oil passage and bind rotating components. The other problem is some think that if a little is okay more is better.

 

Spot on.

I took apart a set of 355 lifters for a rebuild yesterday and found two colors of silicone bits inside of that set, gray and black. Found a 2" worm plugging the oil feed port on a 456 head after the cam's seized.....

To your point, what can be seen pushing out on the outside, is also on the inside and you can only hope it stays put.

 

Dave that's interesting because when I took apart my 550's plenum and cam covers I found black sealant in various places, particularly forward on the cam covers behind the cam seals and basically all through the intake plenum. The only places that ever touched those parts were authorized dealers.

Is there an "unspoken" habit of using sealant in addition to the template gaskets to avoid bringbacks for minor leaks?

Thanks,
Pete

 

Sealant used in a proper manner, in the proper place and the right product for the application, is acceptable.

A decade ago we could build a dry engine with little to none, these days.....

 

I have a question that somewhat fits in this arena. I have a heatshield on my Subie DD that had popped two welds and was giving me this annoying rattle. I had it in the shop for new strtus all around and had asked if they could take care of that rattle for me. they threw a couple spot welds on to repair the two that had popped loose and i was exstatic the rattle was gone. Well, a month later and it's back. My thought now is leaning toward a flexible (adhesive) solution. Something high temp possibly? I'm thinking something similar to what they glue uni-body cars together with these days. Any thougts guys? Oh, and this is only about 20% attachement support fo the rest of the shield so it doesn't need to really hold it up there per say...

 

We ended up with 3 Chevy LT1 long blocks because of this. GM said "replace them." All 3 had the oil pickup clogged by blue rtv bits. They ran fine after cleaning them out.

 

What about JB weld? Check it out on google.

 

GOSPEL!!!!

Rick

 

I don't think you are going to find an adhesive that will have any durability on a heat shield. Yes there are some exotic binding agents out there but I don't think you are going to like the price for such a small fix. I'd suggest drilling and either rivet the pieces together or use a small bolts with either jet nuts or stover nuts.

Rick

 

I'll correct my post a bit. This portion of the heat shiled is far clear of exhaust and may more correctly be called a stone shield?

 

Here's an example:

http://www.cotronics.com/vo/cotr/newprod.htm

Or try googling "high temperature flexible epoxy"

 

Threebond makes an excellent series of liquid gasket.

 

Could silver solder or silver brasing wire be considered an adhesive?