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Britpart Rover inlet manifold gasket - fit dry or with sealant?

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:43 am
by ratwing
It's the metal one with a black cardboardy kind of coating on each side, there's no fitting notes so what do you reckon - just fit it or use some sort of sealant on it?

Re: Britpart Rover inlet manifold gasket - fit dry or with sealant?

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 11:42 am
by garrycol
I am not sure whether you should or should no but the engines do have an issue of loosing coolant where it goes into the manifold. Over the last couple of years I have used sealant on all of my valley gaskets - not only around the coolant areas but around the inlet ports as well - comes because my old 3.5 was sucking in air.

I have had to pull a few off after - for reasons not related to the installation and the trick is to use the minimum amount of sealant as necessary but it did not seem to impact the operation of the engine and had clearing sealed everything up nicely - but use the min amount necessary.

Garry

Re: Britpart Rover inlet manifold gasket - fit dry or with sealant?

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 4:48 pm
by sidecar
I always a small amount of sealant on both sides of the gasket, silicone sealant isn't fuel proof so make sure you use a proper gasket sealant that is fuel proof! Also check that the valley gasket clamps at either end of the engine do not foul up on the underside of the manifold, they should be Ok on a standard engine but they can need the ends trimming a few mm when things become non-standard. I have also seen the clamps crack just at the hole in the middle of each clamp which is annoying!

Re: Britpart Rover inlet manifold gasket - fit dry or with sealant?

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 6:48 pm
by ratwing
Cheers guys, I've used Wellseal round the waterways & ports and Wynn's black gasket maker on the end rubbers so hopefully no leaks when I try starting up tomorrow.
FWIW the last valley gasket I used had a thin black rubbery coating and sealed perfectly without any additional goo (apart from round the end rubbers) but I don't remember where it came from

Re: Britpart Rover inlet manifold gasket - fit dry or with sealant?

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 11:40 pm
by garrycol
While the composite valley covers work well, I have heard (no personal experience) that the rubber material can come off inside the top of the engine and may cause issues. I only use the straight tin valley covers.

Re: Britpart Rover inlet manifold gasket - fit dry or with sealant?

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:43 pm
by ratwing
Yes I've seen that too, they seemed to think the oil (Shell Helix) had somehow made all the coating peel off which blocked the oil strainer causing huge oil starvation damage. Maybe it was a cheapo fake genuine gasket?
I checked the rubber coating on the one I took off, it's still firmly stuck in place and doesn't start to peel off if attacked with a Stanley knife (I use Valvoline oil).