Tim, my thing about that is this: How to determine date of manufacture on an O-ring? Is the one on the elbow older or the one in the parts store's assortment bin? Or is a whole bag of them off the web older? No one can know. The ones on the elbows were made to fit, factory installed in the groove, and have a sealer coating. I can't think of how to beat that unless its using fatter rings. But then will the elbows install to the intended depth and stay squarely seated?
So the answer is yes, the ones that are pre-installed. And I have pics of all the bores but the one I showed was the only one appearing flawed. And honestly I ain't wanting to act snotty or bag on anybody but it kinda comes out that way. Frustration of having a great car with one ridiculous limitation that nobody else seems to have is where I am at and where any fussy tone comes from. My life just kinda runs that way overall so that don't help but I am used to it. King Workaround.
RTV is the only way I can think of, to put it together only once and be a success for any length of time. As I said, I never had a new elbow leak not using RTV. But they fail quickly. So to me, playing around swapping rings is the desperate hobbyist move more so than RTV. I believe that any reasonable person would anticipate this application needing a little of it. For whatever reason, mine don't stay stationary. Three engines, same. This car had 196K when I got it so theres no way for me to know if somebody in it's history hogged the bores out with a sandpaper drum or something while cleaning them.
I am past it. Its one of those situations where further expert advice is pointless because I reached a point of having to become my own expert, to my own satisfaction and thats all there is. I am used to that too. My sheetmetal abilities have ascended to a point of freaking some people out a little, including me, but I have not found a way to be anything short of an idiot when doing mechanical on non-V8, non-carbed cars. But somehow I just managed to pass the twenty year mark with my 455 GP and put as many miles on it as the two FWDs.
There are just things humans don't get to know, and in the grand scheme of things how important is it? To what great lengths can I justify going, to just be included in the no RTV crowd? Pfft, none. There ain't no way in hell sealant ain't part of this job and people are free to think what they will. I haven't made enough pay in the last decade to play with cars. Only manage damage and chase maintainence but I love my job. Its something a few guys would give a gonad to do but my former mechanical ability has gone sour without any fun projects. Driving heaps is just the best I can do.
Just about have that Model A roof insert welded in. The other day I needed to set down a cardboard template for a sec and was going to stick it in the trunk gap. Wouldn't fit! Anywhere. This, on a car whose doors originally overlapped at top and rear. Damn thats good. I can move metal mountains or make new ones but can I overcome simple elbow sealing? Maybe if I stick a 400 in it.
