dcrasta

I was doing the timing belt job today,

Got to the point where I am ready to install the Fan and noticed I did not install the gasket that came with the Porkentensioner (bracket to block gasket).

How important is this gasket?

are any of the bolts likely to have oil / water leaking from them?

I did use the set screw in the Water Pump idler hole, but the paper gasket got 'left out'.

Given I have pretty much bolted the car up, and have check the timing and verified the belt and tension is good, I really would rather not go in there again.

Words of experience? Help !



Thanks in advance.!

Shark_Week

umm. yeah kinda important

dcrasta

craptastic-
Hopefully removing all this stuff will be easier as I used antisieze on all the steel -> Aluminum bolts.

The factory tensioner was a ticking bomb it was dry, cracked boot, spring popped out as soon as I took it off the car.

Lizard928

I never use that gasket on my cars.

Ken said in one of the discussions that it was only critical to use that gasket to protect the surfaces so that if you ever chose to go back to stock you could.

dcrasta

Hmm, the guy with 3 cars says no.. The guy with 1 says yes.

So far its 3 nos and 1 yes. Hope Ken sees this and PM's me (hint hint).


I really would rather not disturb all that good careful work for 1 gasket.

mj1pate

is this the same gasket that was directly behind the original tensioner? If there is no longer any oil seal, its difficult to see how metal to metal behind that oil-less bracket is any different than the metal to metal surface between any other bracket and engine surface. If you are Porkensioner-bound from here on out, I don't see why you should care about the gasket. You should speak with the "manufacturer" to get his take on the implications, but I think you will have to decide. The only possible implication that I can see right now is the distance of the tensioner from the block and alignment concerns. Only Ken could answer to that. I would expect that any manufacturer would give a litigation safe answer, but they should also be able to tell you what, if anything is likely to go wrong.

ROG100

The use of the gasket is preferable but not absolutly needed.
As aleady said it is to protect the surfaces and to allow easy removal at a later date.
Does not effect a seal as there is no oil.
No need to go back in at this stage.

PorKen

Ding, ding, ding!

dcrasta

Ahh.. thanks guys (Wshew).

Looking at it (the old tensioner) looks like the oil comes from the tensioner and gets 'heated' by the block. I dont know if im wrong or right, but if Mr Ken from Portland says its so. I follow that.

Thanks again to Roger for his awesome tolerance of my panic calls (Man the wiggling involved in removing that Harmonic Balancer was crazy).

Thanks Ken for making this tensioner, it really cleans things up (Well made , well documented, awesome).

dr bob

I would double-verify that you used sealant on the oil galley bolt, just so there's no opportunity for leakage.

Ken, while you are looking, I added a PKensioner to James M's '85 Euro a few weeks ago. Everything went together perfectly and I'm impressed with the simple elegance. In the parts kit, there's a setscrew to plug the threaded opening in what was the pivot pin on the water pump housing. Reason you use a setscrew that can't really be "tightened" rather than a capscrew of some sort? Just curious.

PorKen

Cuz it looks cool.

The plug isn't holding anything, and doesn't ever need to be R&Red. It's 16mm long, so as long as it's glued (silicone, Loctite) in place, it should be fine.