<VV> HELP!... push rod tubes...

[Tony Underwood]

At 05:42 hours 09/12/2006, Cash Case wrote:
>Thanks. It rained all afternoon and into the night so I was not able
>to check. I'll look today if it clears up. I began worrying about
>your suggestion last night. I remembered as I took the tubes out the
>first time there was just a tiny bit of silicone type rubber stuff
>around those particular tubes. I wonder how they got that stuff in
>there?



However it got there, it was pointless and a waste of effort.

RTV in pushrod tubes is useless.  Hot oil finds its way under, 
around, past RTV no matter what you might do to make the stuff 
stick.  Likewise gasoline; RTV isn't intended to seal against most 
solvents, which work their way between the RTV and the surface it's 
trying to stick to.    I've tried to get RTV to do something like 
sealing any sort of leak where hot oil or gasoline was involved, 
watched others try as well...  no luck.    It might work as a gasket 
supplement for paper or cork etc when applied and allowed to cure so 
it presents a rubbery surface to compress between two other surfaces, 
like impregnating a cardboard or cork gasket etc.

But using RTV on pushrod tubes does no good at all.   The o-rings 
will either seal up or not; RTV applied to them won't help them.   It 
could however eventually peel off and find its way into the oil pan, 
hopefully to get picked up by the filter which hopefully is working 
and not clogged whereupon the bypass valve opens up, lets a little 
flap of RTV to get into the oil system to plug a gallery or block a 
rod bearing oil passage...

I don't like having RTV inside an engine, anywhere, for any 
reason.     That includes that blue Permeate stuff, unless it's 
smeared onto a paper gasket and allowed to cure BEFORE you assemble 
the stuff.   And even then, a little goes a long way; keep it thin, 
no oozing out between the mating surfaces allowed.


Now:   That being said...  I have nothing against gaskets made of 
cured RTV, valve covers etc as long as they're not over tightened so 
as to crush or pinch the RTV gasket.   You don't want that stuff 
floating around inside an engine.

Rant mode -off-.   ;)


tony..