I am going to have a run of rubber (Buna-N) valve cover gaskets made for the slant six (early years). I can have them made either 3/16 or 1/4 inch thick. What is the general consensus about which would be the better choice?

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

Is there a big difference in price? I would guess the factory ones are not 1/4" thick, but it may not hurt.

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

The FelPro rubber gaskets I have measured are 1/8 inch. Not a big difference in manufacturing costs.

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-MattMan
LEANED & MEAN

If they are too thick then the factory bolts may be too short to capture the threads in the head.
1/8 to 3/16 should be plenty in my opinion.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Sometimes rockers hit the valve cover slightly with big cams. Having a thick gasket (1/4" or even 3/16") would be nice to alleviate this. I vete for 1/4", but either would be fine.

Thanks!!
Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Good point. I never thought of that Lou, but I have certainly had that happen. I could get some longer bolts/studs with a 1/4" gasket and live with it.

Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

I'd be interested in some 1/4" too.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Man, I wonder how many factory (short-a$$) bolts I have holding valve covers down. Not many...

Go guarter inch!!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Agreed! You go Matt!

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2 Mopars come with Spark plug tubes. One is a world class, racing machine. The other is a 426 CI. boat anchor!

12.70 @ 104.6

Go big. There are options for retaining ardware if 1/4 inch is an issue.

I’m in for 1/4”. Will you sell thru your eBay site?

I am happy owner of small stock of Felpro rubber valve cover gaskets. I found them from UK with the part number.

I have found 2 Fel-Pro 1/8" thick gaskets to be enough for my Clifford valve cover. That is because the cast cover is not absolutely straight and because the surface it is not machined but cast.

I have glued the upper gasket with RTV to the cover. The lower gasket is free with no glue. Together with all of this I have ARP studs and nuts for the cover. They are nice as they keep the gasket in a place during installation.

WARNING. Use of extended valve cover screws could cause water leak. The holes are originally blind but with long screws the bottom of the hole is pretty easy to crack. After that the only solution is use (ARP or similar) studs with glue.

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1966 Dart. 170 cu.in. 200 rwhp.

I vote for 1/4" gasket but I like to have short bushings installed to the gasket avoiding too tight compression with screws/stud-nuts.

Have you already tested Buna-N in this solution? The data says it has limited heat resistance. Most vulcanized rubbers will continue hardening (vulcanizing) under heat. Some will come "hard as a glass". I thing a hard silicone sheet would be ideal material. I have such a seal in a distilling pot and it has not changed its elastic features at all in use.

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1966 Dart. 170 cu.in. 200 rwhp.

I don't want them much thicker than the stock.
Don't want them crushing out of the cover.


You had asked about other products, this got me thinking.
How hard would a valve cover spacer be to make?
3/8 I would think would be fine.
Just an idea.

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Hyper_pak

Strikes me this (also see here) could readily be sandwiched between two gaskets to make what you have in mind, no?

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一期一会
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