Jeremy Himsel

I usually use a green scotch brite pad on my die grinder to remove all the old gasket material and then check to make sure everything is flat. You can do this by hand but it's a bit quicker. Once the old material is removed, I pay particular attention to making sure everything is clean and dry and usually use fast thinner, mek, or even brake parts cleaner in a pinch. As with others, I usually put a thick bead of petroleum jelly (for some reason my wife always has a few tubes of this at the house) around the pistons to cylinder wall gaps and seal the oil returns. I shop vac everything out when I'm done.

When installing the gasket, I always put a VERY thin coat of Ultra Blue RTV around the water return jacket as this area tends to leak even with a stock gasket. (This is simply a skim coat and not a bead). I install the gasket and make sure there is no overlap then carefully set the head on the studs. I also always make sure to give it 20 minutes or so between TQ sequences to give the studs a chance to "relax" a bit.

Techno Duck

Thanks for the info Jeremy. The scotch brite pads are great, i used them to clean up the oil pan mating surface earlier this year. Are you installing the gasket dry, with the exception of a sealant around the front water jacket neck?

Jeremy Himsel

Yup. Bone dry.