hi all i have noticed a lot of questions/comments concerning sealing
products, i am a ford dealership mechanic and these are the procedures
according to me as used in our shop. RTV ULTRABLACK use on all 4
cylinders, it is high temp and 02 sensor safe. there is only 1 silicone that
is better and it is RTV ULTRACOPPER you can use this on almost every thing,
even use this on exhaust components such as exhaust manifolds, very high
temp, 02 safe. DO NOT USE SILICONE AS A COOLING SYSTEM GASKET IT WILL LEAK
90% OF THE TIME, SILICONE DOES NOT HANDLE HYDRAULIC PRESSURE VERY WELL. DO
NOT USE SILICONE ON GASKETS, AS YOU TIGHTEN THE GASKET
DOWN THE GASKET WILL SLIDE AND SOMETIMES TEAR OR SQUEEZE OUT OF THE SURFACE
IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE SEALING!!! I HAVE SEEN IT HAPPEN. be carefull when
using rtv silicone, both surfaces must be VERY clean, use a methyl hydrate
based cleaner such as brake clean and use surgical gloves and safety glasses
when cleaning if you get brake clean on your skin it really dries it out,
and it really burns your eyes, if you get it in your eyes flush with water
immediatly. rtv also skins off in a very short time make sure you have
everything prepared properly, and read the instructions on the silicone very
carefully, some silicones skin off in as little as 5 minutes. use common
sense when applying silicone, if you mating surfaces are very flat and the
gap you need to fill is very small use a thin application silicone also
works well when you need to fill a larger gap, i have used it as end gaskets
on v8 intake manifolds the gap is pretty big probably 1/4 inch, as long as
everything is prepared properly and you apply the proper amount of sealant
you will never have a problem, i find it better than using the thick cork
end gaskets because the cork gaskets get dried out with heat and eventually
leak, silicone will not be affected by the heat. please note on all the
newer engines gaskets are getting fewer and fewer and the use of rtv is more
and more, this is very good stuff when used properly.
ANAROEBIC SEALER ford part#cxc79 is an excellent sealer for bolts etc. it is
better than pipe sealant because it does not totally harden and it does not
need air to cure, sometimes after applying pipe sealer (white stuff) it
dries very hard and can be hard to remove the bolts and i have seen it chew
up the threads in alluminum, we also use anarobic sealer to seal main
bearing caps if you have trouble with oil migrating out of the engine
through the machined surfaces of the end cap.
brian steel vancouver bc
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