rocker cover gasket

[Anonymous]

Can someone give me a lesson on how to put a cork rocker cover gasket on.......this is what i did i tighten it to 7nm waited 15mins then retighten ran the engine up to normal temp, next day when motor was cold tighten it again, i noticed a few days later it was leaking at one point , did i over tighten it or not enough

Thanks Joip

 

[aussie7mains]

Make sure the gasket hasnt slipped inside the cover, they can do this if you put sealant or grease on them.
What i do is just make sure everything is clean, all old bits cleaned off.
Put the gasket into the cover, make sure all the notches are engaged, turn it over. make sure the gasket doesnt fall down.
Place onto head, put in screws, make sure the gasket hasnt slipped inside.
Tighten up BY HAND with socket extension, thats usually all they need, over tightening cuts gasket.
A7M

 

[Anonymous]

After reading your reply aussie, yep over tighten it was cut, thanks for your help

Joip

 

[Anonymous]

I would suggest going to Repco and buying a Speco rubber gasket. They are a straight swap for the cork. They cost about $40 as opposed to $8 for cork but they wont leak! I reckon the extra few bucks is worth it. I found that no matter what I tried to do I could not get cork gaskets to seal.

 

[Anonymous]

With the steel rocker covers on those cross flow engines.
Turn the rocker cover over and make sure the area around the bolt hole is not raised above the level of the gasket sealing surface.
Stick the gasket onto the cover. I used to use a trim adhesive, and wait for the gasket to bond to the cover.
Refit the cover and retighten later. As previously discussed.
The best thing to do it piff the pressed cover and fit the cast alloy injected cover.
But dont tell anybody coz we dont want the price of em to go up.
Noel.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys at the monent the cork is holding up, but at least I know now I have other options

Joip

 

[Anonymous]

i had the same problem with my car... leaky rocker cover (so bad, oil was getting onto the extractors, so smoke would come out of my car when I parked it... not good)

i put a new gasket on, cleaned the old one off really good, but it looks like the prev. owner had overtightened the cover and the areas around the bolt is like.. pushed down... sure enough, a few days and coupla hundred k's later its leaking again

how much would one of the cast covers set me back (they look a whole lot better too!)... or should I just go and get a tube of gasket sealer and go nuts.

 

[Anonymous]

gasket goo in a tube works a treat!

 

[Anonymous]

When I got a few 2nd hand spares off a guy, he was a Ford mechanic for 40 years, he told me to put the rocker cover on a sheet of glass and check for any high/warped spots and hammer them flat, coat the cork gasket in grease completely, and torque it up as specified, run it for a couple of hours, and torque it again. I did this over 6000km ago and it still hasn't leaked. This is actually described in the Ford workshop manual.

 

[xctasy]

When I put my Holley throttle body in on my XE, I had to push the intake mainfold out 12.5 mm to allow the Redline adaptor to fit. Then the new gasket woudn't seal because the rocker cover (steel, not the spunky EFI number) was hooking up on the manifold. Check this first, then follow Ford shop practice.

Ford engineers have some bizzare hoops that you must jump through in there service manuals...mainly because they want to save on warranty claims. They do care, but sometimes their arms are too short and the corporate coffers are too deep to reach! Gaskets, auto trans servicing for BW 35/30/55's, thin-wall block bores on V8's, power steering pumps, too small cross flow radiators, disc brake axles on 1973-1979 heavy duty diffs, BW cone clutches on LSD's....all of them penny pinching items that Merceades Benz, BMW, even Opel and certainly Toyota wouldn't have let out of the factory if they were in Fords situation. Ford just put caution warnings and service notices out.

Ooops, got carried away again. At least if my Falcon breaks, I can fix it. A MB E-class would send me broke before I even paid for it!