goop then gasket? or gasket followed-by goop?

[_jeff_]

hi folks-

i'm having problems getting a water-tight seal around my thermostat...i'm on my 4th gasket, and second water-neck. i hope my job sealing my timing cover/waterpump and intake proove to be better.

opinions on the best order for the layers?
rtv, thermostat, gasket, rtv, cover?
thermostat, rtv, gasket, rtv, cover?
bun-burger-cheese-bbq-bacon-bun-beer?
should the 'stickey side' of the gasket go up or down?

thanks,
jeff

[Ristow]

throw that RTV in the garbage!

use a semi hardening sealant,like three- bond,although for paper gaskets i like the aerosol "copper coat,clean the gasket surfaces with brake or carb cleaner,to degrease,then spray both sides of gasket with copper coat,and assemble.

[jode]

Crazy you are haviong so much trouble, I have done them with RTV only and no gasket, and with a gasket with a thin layer of RTV on both sides.

Are you letting it cure before filling?

[_jeff_]

yeah, i let the goop sit for about 24 hours or so before filling the radiator & checking for the thermostat to open. but i've not waited to assemble the parts...squeeze rtv out (black, grey, blue i've done them all by now), bolt it up, try not to overtighten.

it's just a thermostat...this is supposed to be simple. sometimes i wonder if this gw of mine has evil spirits.

-jeff

[tgreese]

Usually the only trouble you have is if you catch the edge of the thermostat between the housing and the manifold. That is, the stat isn't correctly seated in its recess. In that case, you'll break an aluminum housing, but a steel housing may not break, and could leak.

[HeepofaJeep]

Yeah, something is wrong, because I have done a lot of thermostats with no gasket, just rtv. Only one I ever had a problem with was when I didn't let it sit before adding water.

The only thing I can think of is either the Therm. housing is bent/scored, or the thermostat isn't seating right

[_jeff_]

the thermostat is new, but has been in&out 5 times now. its lip-thingey should still be okay i guess?

btw, the water-neck that came on my used performer-manifold turned out to have a severe worble, so i grabbed the neck from stock intake, and i still had a leaker with it on the edelbrock manifold...

try and try some more. tomorrow's another day.

there IS a small burr that catches my scraper on the manifold at one of the bolt-holes...if it leaks tomorrow, i'll try smoothing it down with an emery cloth or something, and probably try that spray-copper gasket maker, and maybe a different brand gasket.

-jeff
90 gw, 63 wag, 67 j2k (and none of them run)

[mdill]

Worse comes to worse, draw file both the housing (They warp alot, especially after over tourqing) and the manifold surface. Something is warped.

Mike D.

[steven79]

You can try a thicker gasket too, i had problems with those thin ones that came with my t-stat, i make my own gaskets most of the time on things like that.