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RTV silicone suggestions, LIM valley oil leak

R

robinsone

New member
I swapped out my LIM gaskets at around 145k I'm not at 206k and I think I have a LIM valley gasket, or rtv silicone leak where there is a gap between the LIM gaskets. I believe this is the case as I have oil that would appear to be coming out of both head gaskets on one side of the engine. I've been reading a bit and the LIM valley/rtv site can leak and appear to be coming from the HGs which I know is a pretty rare event for oil to actually be coming out of them.

When I did the install way back when I had a guy who knew how to do it help. He poured a whole helping of rtv on the LIM and valley gasket including where the gap is. I was a little concerned about the amount of rtv as it doesn't look like you needed that much. I'm not sure if this is now the point of failure or not but wanted to get any suggestions of rtv that might last longer than the 60k I've gotten out of it.

I also went from parking indoors to outdoors (cold winters) so I'm also not sure if that had anything to do with the leak as I'm leaking in a few other seals, but I imagine that's a combination of the mileage, and grooves worn into the axles and crank seals. I've managed to fix the front crank seal for now.

Let me know if there are any quality rtv that might last longer than 60k, thanks.
 


Is super simple. Easily done I mean. It's even printed on the little piece of paper included with the gasket.
 


Clean it down.. I bet you'll find it's your valve cover gaskets and grommets that need to be replaced.

You are correct, it's nearly impossible for HG's to leak oil. Nearly as in you'll win powerball first.
 
Black RTV silicone.....

Intake_Manifold_003.JPG
 
See. We all got our favorites. Just effin do it correctly and don't worry :)

I'll tell you why no one uses my choice of rtv - $$. But it's to me
as e85 is to Tyler....
 
Yeah my valve cover gaskets have about 20k on them and the grommets about 5k, yes I didn't do them at the same time...

But could it be the LIM valley rtf that has failed. I have the slightly older felpro plastic gaskets and want to upgrade to the newer felpro metal.

People would suggest copper rtv has a good alternative to generic black rtv
 


i dab rtv on the bare metal @ the corners and set the gaskets in, then another dab @ the corners.

that areas not leaking oil, trust me on that. its your valve covers.

black rtv is fine, red is fine, orange is fine, grey is also fine. any rtv will work for the corner dabs, makes no difference at all.
 
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