We’ve all heard the warnings about not using a sealant when using certain types of gaskets. When you use a sealant, first of all, it prevents the gasket from moving. A lot of times in these types of gaskets, they’ll be in areas where you have two different materials. You may have a plastic intake manifold with an aluminum block or a cast iron block that have different rates of expansion. You may feel tempted to use a sealant to add a little extra sealing to an application, but you actually make things a whole lot worse for the engine.
And the prime example is the gasket for a variable valve timing system and the oil control solenoid. RTV can very easily plug the screen in this gasket, because it has the potential to make it past the oil pickup screen. So keep this in mind: Do not use sealants on certain applications that do not call for it. This way you can make sure that all the oil passages and galleys stay free of RTV.
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This video is sponsored by Auto Value and Bumper To Bumper.
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