I know it's generally a good practice to get a gasket whenever pulling the valve cover, but was wondering if anyone has had experience reusing it?
I need to pull my valve cover to get a look at my upper timing chain guides. I plan to do a full timing chain repair this spring, but really want to pull those top guides before they snap off.
Valve cover gasket had been replaced ~1 year ago. I'd buy one tomorrow if I could, but honestly I don't think my local parts places will have any in stock. I really need to get a look at those chain guides ASAP.
So...what's the verdict? Do you suppose the old gasket will hold up?
Also, would Permatex Ultra Blue or Black be a decent RTV to use on the front timing chain cover?
Valve Cover Gasket Reusability
-
quiksilvia
- Posts: 3197
- Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2003 7:09 am
- Car: 95 s14 se
- Contact:
Well, the gasket held up well. It looked perfect when we pulled the valve cover.
Removed the top guide, which had some light gouge marks from the chain.
Unfortunately, I found out that someone (possibly one of the guys at the local Nissan dealer) stripped the threads, making it impossible to torque down one of the valve cover bolts. We tried to use some Permatex thread repair stuff, but the garage was too cold for it cure properly.
Everything under the valve cover looked remarkably clean. You could clearly see the paint on the cam shafts, which surprised me somewhow.
The tapping noise persists, so the chain must be hitting the side upper guide.
Depending on the results of a compression test, I'll either go ahead and replace both timing chains and tensioners or just drop another KA in there.
Anyway, the gasket held up quite well.
Removed the top guide, which had some light gouge marks from the chain.
Unfortunately, I found out that someone (possibly one of the guys at the local Nissan dealer) stripped the threads, making it impossible to torque down one of the valve cover bolts. We tried to use some Permatex thread repair stuff, but the garage was too cold for it cure properly.
Everything under the valve cover looked remarkably clean. You could clearly see the paint on the cam shafts, which surprised me somewhow.
The tapping noise persists, so the chain must be hitting the side upper guide.
Depending on the results of a compression test, I'll either go ahead and replace both timing chains and tensioners or just drop another KA in there.
Anyway, the gasket held up quite well.
-
Axel Grungy
- Posts: 4711
- Joined: Tue Jul 08, 2003 8:13 am
- Car: 2001 G20 5spd
- Location: Cincinnati OH
Yeah, that gasket looked pretty tough. Granted, mine had only been in there for ~1 year, but it still looked good as new.Axel Grungy wrote:yeah dont REALLY need one unless its ripped or damaged. ive reused mine prolly two or three times, just be very gentle. just make sure to use some kinda rtv, ive used the copper high temp stuff. it works well. (im cheap yes i know)
I used some Permatex "black" RTV since that's what we had around. I'm going to have to get the valve cover off again to put in a new tensioner, so I'll probably replace the gasket at that point.
Unfortunately, my last compression numbers weren't very good at all. I plan on doing a compression test myself (someone else did the last one) just to verify, but I'm afraid my KA may be heading for the scrap heap.
My 2nd gear synchro is gettin' bad too, so I am really starting to lean towards dropping a new KA and transmission in.
Anyway, I don't really want to drop too much money in to this particular engine. The plus side is that I might have some '93 cams for sale at some point.
