karl ruiter

So my new motor is in, but I have oil dripping off the pan flange bolts. Does not seem to be coming from higher up (the good news). The pan gasket is one or Roger's silicon jobs.

What could be wrong? Anybody else had problems with these?

My thoughts are these:

1) in the course of sorting the motor, I had a lot of CIS problems and hydrolocked the motor several times. Ended up with a lot of fuel in the oil. I did not run it that way, of course, but it did sit that way for a while. Could the (old, nasty) fuel have damaged the silicon pan gasket?

2) The instructions (as I recall) were to put the gasket in dry witn no sealents. Is that what everyone else is doing?

3) Is there a torquing process that anyone could recommend? Is that critical here?

blown 87

Torque is critical on them, no good way to torque them with the motor in the car.
It really needs some type of spacers so you can torque the bolts down so they wont fall out.
I will not install them any more except when a engine is out of the car.

SeanR

Installed a couple dozen of them, only one was out of the car. It is also easier to torque them down when using the stud kits instead of the bolts. Done them both ways and have not seen one leaking.

Very weird.

ROG100

Karl,
All surfaces should be clean and the torque should be about 15 inch pounds.
As Greg says difficult to get a torque wrench on a few of the bolts.
I use two fingers on the end of a 10mm rachet wrench.
Do not squish the gasket at all. If the gasket is bulging it is to tight.
Let me know if that improves the situation?

Do you have any knicks in the mating surfaces?
Best,
Roger

karl ruiter

I have been back in to re-tighten where I can and I do now have some bulging. Could this have damaged the gasket or can I just drain the oil, loosen the whole pan, and retighten uniformly? Not sure about nicks. I remember that I was pretty careful when I assembled the motor, but I don't remember the details.. I did do the inital installation with the motor on a stand and probably the motor was upside down, so I think I would have been careful about the tightening. I think I did not initally see the leakage, only later on (don't remember specifics on this either), which I why I am kind of wondering about the fuel in oil issue. Might also have been because it would not run at first so less splashing.

Marine Blue

I know the three hard to reach bolts on my oil pan were too loose as well which resulted in a very small leak. I had them retightened and the leak is gone. I think Greg brings up a good point regarding it being easier to do when the engine is out. You have full access to the bolts to torque it correctly.

Imo000

Why doesn't it come with crush rings in each bolt hole. Many valve cover gaskets have this to control compression. Wouldn't add that much more to the cost, would it?

928mac

Yes you can loosen it and try to tighten them again all evenly.
I used blue thread locker on my bolts and tightened then till i could see the gasket get tight, just about to swell.
Have always done it this way and have never had a problem.
More then likely you have oil seeping along the back or the front and following the pan edge.
get a good little mechanics mirror, Good luck.

Brad

ROG100

Karl,
The gasket is reusable as long as it has not been damaged.
Bulging is not good and could be why it is leaking. Is it leaking in one area or all around?
Roger

dr bob

These almost deserve a procedure that says something like 'turn each bolt with fingers only until they contact the sump. Then evenly add xx [fraction of a] turn to all bolts. As Sean points out, the isntall really deserves the stud kit with some Loc-Tite on the block end an Nyloc's or some other locking nut at the open end. It would for sure need a contact-plus-turns based procedure, since the locking nuts have the locking torque to consider.

Adding crush sleeves to the bolts is a mixed bag. To seal the sleeves themselves, you'd have to make them soft and somewhat sacrificial. Or add Loc-Tite to the threads into the block just for the sealing. Once you are there you might as well just start counting turns after finger-tight sump surface contact.


I generally like the silicone gaskets for duty like this, --so long as the mating surfaces are immaculate--. ANY little imperfection or bit of debris left on a mating face leaves a path for leakage. The composition cork-and-neoprene gaskets are way more forgiving IMHO. When I did my MM's many moons ago, the silicone gasket wasn't yet readily available. So far so good and no leaks with the 'old style', installed with no additional sealer. I did put Hylomar on the bolt threads, after cleaning and flushing all the bolt holes carefully. Thread sealing paste might do as well.

mark kibort

why not use the stock stuff? Ive had pretty good luck with the stock gaskets, but know silicon is good to,but more critical on tightening.

Eric Vaas

I just put a motor in my 83, and on an engine stand, installed one of these gaskets. Clean surface, no sealer. No threadlock. Torqued properly, just like the instructions say. Next day, bolts were finger loose. Retorqued to 15. Next day, finger loose again. Retorqued again. After 4 retorques, bolts held the torque. Thought I could just see some bulging starting to happen. Put the motor in, in a few hundred miles, its leaking. This winter I will rip it out of there, and put a stock gasket in with sealer and thread lock. Do not like them.
Rick

ROG100

Rick,
Sorry that you had a problem. The issue of the bolts backing out is common to both gaskets because of the low torque. Most bolts on a sump fitted with a cork gasket are also loose or become loose.
We do recommend that you clean the threaded holes and use some loctite to maintain the position of the bolt or use the stud kit.
We have sold hundreds of them without issue. I know the other vendors sell them as well and would be interesting to hear of their feedback also.

I have personally fitted more than I care to remember without a single leak.

Rick if you purchased the SOPG from 928sRus I will gladly refund your money. Contact me directly.

Roger

blown 87

The OE manufactures have done this for years and it works great, no problems at all.
Fel-Pro does this with their top of the line valve cover gaskets, the spacers do not crush and the gasket is reusable.
If the silicone gaskets had that feature I would try them again.

I am not a fan of the stud kits, I will just leave it at that.

The stock gasket works very well, lasts for years and you can get the bolts tight enough so they wont fall out.

borland

Roger says "15 inch pounds", however the instruction sheet that came with my Real Gasket silicone rubber gasket says "20-25 inch pounds". The trick is locking the bolts so they don't back out.

I have done some compression testing of the silicone rubber gasket. My tests were at ambient temperature. I still need to do some elavated temperature testing.

However, I found that the 'Real Gasket' can easily withstand up to 50% compression and not undergo any elastic deformation. At 65% compression, deformation is present.

Based on this initial testing, up to 30% compression is probably safe for elevated temperatures that the 928 is likely to experience.

Knowing the bolt thread pitch, one can compute the number of turns required to yield any desired % compression.