People who get paid to wrench

sloFOUR said:
I just into a long drawn out argument on FB about using RTV to seal mating surfaces as opposed to gaskets.

I know LT1s use it from the factory to seal the intakes, but this guy who claims to work on multimillion dollar equipment is arguing saying that RTV is not used by OEMS for anything. Weird, I just fixed a miss on a saturn that was leaking oil from the valve cover into a plug well. OEM used RTV. Went to buy the gasket and they handed me a box the size of a headgasket with a tube of RTV in it....
I guess SR20 engines have something magical to seal the oil pan because there isnt a gasket for that either. Or the thermostat housing on a Taurus that blew out 3 paper gaskets, nothing held until i used RTV (coolant rated)
Or the manifold to turbo on a dodge 2.2 turbo where a gasket was never made, nothing gets used there, it leaks if you use anything. There is no gasket made by chrysler for that, and they tell you in the FSM not to use a gasket.

I could go on for days.
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RTV is used in many OEM applications including both light duty and commercial truck. Management and engineers like it because it is readily available off the shelf, requires little development time and the investment is low unlike a gasket. Speaking as someone who works as an engineer and used to be responsible for seals.
 
camaromann said:
Some of my 2013 GMC Sierra's 5.3 engine looks like it has some rtv used on it. Possibly on the transfer case as well. I could be wrong though lol
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New gen V small blocks have rtv at the pan, front and rear cover. You will see rtv alot in the newer engines.
 
We dont use RTV to seal any of our cases... but we do put it on fasteners (as an added locking componet when the hardware is inside the engine.) and compressor blades for dampening.... and trust me my shit is WAY more expensive than anything he works on... ;)
 
ASRoff said:
We dont use RTV to seal any of our cases... but we do put it on fasteners (as an added locking componet when the hardware is inside the engine.) and compressor blades for dampening.... and trust me my shit is WAY more expensive than anything he works on... ;)
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Same here, we only use it to keep moisture out or whatever fluid needs to stay inside of our parts


When I worked at Mercedes the only thing that had a bond surface was the cam covers and oil pans for the most part. The cam covers WERE the bearing surfaces for the cams so it was machined perfect to fit and the sealant was supposed to be a certain width bead when applied. Ex 3 mm bead. if an engine failed because of excessive sealant the shop was eating the cost, so we were pretty careful about how/when/where it was applied.
 
I have heard that Rolls Royce doesn't use any gaskets in their engines. That all mating surfaces are machined with mating ridges that fit together like the threads of a nut & bolt. All they use is silicone on these surfaces; although I don't know that first hand. For that matter I don't have enough cash to even pull into the parking lot of the Rolls dealer!

But, I can say that Ford uses Silicone from the factory on the 4.6 3-valve. They use a dab of silicone on the valve covers, oil pan, and the timing chain cover. You need a little dab at the points where the rubber gaskets meet two separate surfaces. A good example is on the valve cover where it mates to the area where the cylinder head and the timing chain cover come together.<o:p></o:p>
 
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