Transcription
So I've got this engine I'm assembling. This is how I normally do it. I've got the cleaned and prepped upper oil pan, and I've got it set right here. Then I would go grab one of my sealants, and I would put sealant all the way around the flange. Then I would flip it upside down and bolt it down to the block. But that brings up the question of sealant; there's all kinds of different types.
So here I've got a few different types to look at. I'm sure there's more on the market, but they're not all the same. What do we have? Let's just read some labels real quick. This is black adhesive sealant silicone RTV, and we're going to compare that to ultra black gasket maker oil resistant. Then we're going to compare that to Right Stuff 90-minute gasket maker black. They both say high flexibility and oil resistant, ideal for domestic and older vehicles. They both say sensor safe. So it would seem that the big difference between these two would be the cure time.
Then we're going to move over here to the ultra gray. That one says gasket maker high torque silicone RTV formula, rigid torque in high vibration applications. Hmm, ideal for import and newer vehicles. Why is this one good for new vehicles, and these are good for the old junkers, older vehicles? And also sensor safe. Then we've got some JB Weld stuff. This one's made for the exhaust system, 1800 degrees Fahrenheit. Then they have the high temp, which I don't have the high temp version over here. Do you need the high temp? I don't have the packaging for it unfortunately right now, so I can talk about—I've used all these—this ultra gray is going to be similar to this ultra gray, the high torque. What's it say? High torque load applications, oil resistant, sensor safe, low odor—that's very important—set time in one hour. So basically, this sets faster than the 90-minute, because you know there's 60 minutes in one hour, and there's 90 minutes in an hour and a half. Then we've got the ultra black RTV from JB Weld, and that also sets in one hour. Maximum oil resistant. That one does not say it for the ultra gray. Temperature 500 degrees, low odor, cure color black, and great for oil pans, valve covers, transmission pans, timing cover gears, and intake manifold. So this one does not say intake manifolds. Why is this one better for—I guess intake manifolds are high torque applications, but they're not really transmission pan, same oil pan, same timing cover gears, yep, cam covers. Hmm, interesting comparison.
Now let's kind of take a look at the back real quick and see what the instructions say and compare the instructions. We need to prepare it for best results: clean and dry surface area. Check. No oil. Everything's clean and dry and prepped. We need to apply an even continuous quarter-inch bead of silicone to one surface surrounding all bolt holes with silicone. We need to assemble and reconnect the parts while silicone is still wet, and then hand tighten until silicone begins to squeeze out. See, number four is what no one, including myself, has ever done. No mechanic on earth has ever followed the instructions on silicone, but we're about to do that. So hand tighten until silicone begins to squeeze out. Allow drying for one hour, and then tighten an additional quarter turn. So that doesn't actually make sense to me, because I guess the set time is one hour, and then the cure time is something else. So let me know what the cure time is. So what I just said about the Right Stuff and the JB Weld is different because I think there's a differentiation between the set time and the cure time. So we're just going to go straight to this one and see what the instructions say. For best results, surface should be clean and dry. Check. Cut nozzle and apply continuous 1/16 to 1/4 inch. So they don't go straight to the quarter inch. JB Weld wants you to put a quarter inch on. They don't give you the leeway of putting a little bit less on. Two to six millimeters—that's a pretty wide variance compared to the JB Weld that just said quarter inch—surrounding all bolt holes. Assemble parts immediately while silicone is still wet. Finger tighten until material begins to squeeze out around flange. Everything sounds the same. Let dry for one hour, and then tighten to torque specifications. The same exact instructions. Then it says allow 90 minutes before filling with fluids or returning to service. Hmm. Replace cap after use. See, on some of these others, you know, I've just ignored all the instructions before. I hate to admit it, but everyone has—you know, if you really want the truth—I don't know if you've done the instructions properly on this. Please raise your hand and tell us in the comments. Maybe, maybe I'm just the only one that's always done this wrong, but maybe not. So you want to pay close attention. Every single one here is made for cars, or is it? So this one specifically talks about car stuff. It says oil resistant. It says the temperature. Says it's good for stuff like car parts. This one does not. This one says general purpose, interior, exterior use, seals and insulates, weather resistant. This doesn't say nothing about oil pans or oil resistant.
So let's read the instructions. It says clean and dry all surfaces. Cut nozzle to desired bead size. Apply one surface. Assemble immediately. Surfaces being bonded may need to be clamped for one hour or until silicone is firm. Silicone becomes tack free in one hour. Allow 24 hours to fully cure under normal conditions. And also it should say the temperature. You know, this is RTV silicone stuff. This should be room temperature type applications when you're trying to cure it. Trim excess with a sharp knife after a cure. All-purpose black silicone adhesive sealant provides a waterproof protective seal around metal, glass, rubber, etc. Designed for interior, exterior use. Not recommended for engine gasketing applications or windshield installation. So if you don't read that top line right there and you go trying to put this on your engine, you could probably have gasket leaks. The rest of these will work, except you probably don't want to put exhaust sealant gasket on your engine, even though it probably still would work. So I prefer to always use either this black 90-minute or this ultra gray. The three main ones are this black, the gray, and the red. The red—I'm not talking about the exhaust—I'm talking about the high temp RTV. This stuff goes on the thinnest, all right? And then this black stuff and the gray stuff go on about the same. It's kind of goopy compared to the thin viscosity of the red stuff. And the red stuff kind of dries rubbery and kind of flexy, even though this one says max flex. The gray stuff really kind of dries hard and is the stiffest. And the black is in between. The black kind of is a little bit stiff and a little bit rubbery, but the gray definitely dries the hardest. And I think the black and the red come off the easiest, and this gray is—you have to take it off with a chisel. So I don't know, you might like the gray stuff, but black or gray—that's my preference. They also make this gray stuff in Permatex with 90-minute. Otherwise, you probably do want to get the 90-minute stuff, just because it's nice to not have to worry about curing time. But we're going to install this properly per instructions. The rest of these are going to say similar things. They're going to say allow 24 hours full cure. And let's double check this one again. The 90-minute—does it say 24 hours to full cure? I can't remember if I just read that. Allow 90 minutes before filling fluids. So it doesn't tell you the full cure time, but it just says that you're safe to put fluids in in 90 minutes. So there's a little bit of gray area—no pun intended—with the ultra gray right there. But um, we're going to install it how the instructions say, and the instructions say—well, it's still wet—finger tighten until material begins to squeeze out around the flange and let dry for one hour. So we gotta—and then torque it to specifications. So we gotta—let's go ahead and use the gray stuff. So you take the cap off, you flip it upside down, you pierce the top of the bottle, and then if you want to, you can cut the cap right here and squeeze it through that cone, but I find that it just makes it really hard to squeeze the tube out. So I can just estimate what the instructions say. The instructions give me a range from two to six millimeters. So one thing that I have done wrong, and I admit, is put too much silicone on. Most people will do too much versus too little, and even me starting right here, I'm probably putting too much on. I'm thinning that a little bit, and I'm just gonna smooth it out with my fingers. That's probably enough for that side. The camera is probably way off because I'm looking at what I'm doing. I put way too much on the back. I can spread it all out though. See, I missed a spot right there. It's alright though, because I'm gonna come back and fix it all right there. The camera's way off. All right, this is the important part anyway. I'm just gonna smooth it all the way out. That's not necessarily per instructions. So come to think of it, I'm already blatantly disobeying the instructions because it wants me to lay a bead, but instead of laying a bead, I'm spreading it out. So that's going to kind of warp my results of the hand tightening until it squeezes out the edges. But whatever excess I have, like on the edges right here, I just kind of pull in, and the same thing on the other side, and just—I'm gonna rag right here behind the camera, and I'm just kind of wiping off the excess. And you know the oil pump itself does not have a gasket. It just mates flush, and that's one of the reasons why I don't find it necessary to put a little mini bead on these areas right here. That's internal, and it's not going to make any difference if it's on one side of the other. Now on this one right here, I did go on both sides. You see, you can have it really pretty thin—thinner than you can think it would work—but by the time it flushes all the way out, you don't want excess sealant spilling over inside. Chances are it'll never come off. If you do have a little bead, it's squeezed out, but it's just good practice not to have excess sealant. It can be more prone to leaking if you put too much on as well. So now I'm just gonna kind of walk around the outside. All right, now let's flip it upside down and just finger tighten the bolts. So it wants me to finger tighten it. So I've got this long extension, and I'm dropping it in the holes, and then it says for you just to tighten it until something squeezes out. So I already tightened a couple of them. I did see some—let me see if I got this one right there. See that little bead right there? It just—see how that bead just formed itself right here? Maybe. So basically, you're just squeezing out that little mini bead right here by hand. See that little tiny bead? And then you're not going to fully torque it until about an hour later. So everything gets torqued just by extension pressure right now, and you got to make sure that all your threads are clean and all your bolts go in clean, or this isn't going to work too well. All right, we're going to come back an hour later and actually torque it. Maybe I'll start doing it like this. Maybe I'll set a trend.
So the pistons are installed on this 2.0T. The balance shaft chain and guides are in place. This gear right here has to be timed before install, the balance shaft chain. I've got the oil filter housing off. A couple gaskets you want to replace in between the oil cooler and the oil filter housing. There's another gasket back here. So I've got a junk block outside, and I can just bolt this to my junk block and pressure wash it before I pick those gaskets out and replace it. You want to make sure that you don't damage this O-ring whenever you install that. Whenever you lift this head, you really have to make sure that this connector is unplugged from the coolant temp sensor. And then you'll get your knock sensor wire loose. So you'll have to get this wire loose from the block and this wire loose from the head. And then you see the head is just lifted off slightly. Everything's already cleaned and prepped for install. I got the new gasket on there. I got the new pistons in there. Getting ready to bolt that oil filter housing on, bolt the head on, and you see the intake manifold stays on typically unless you're doing extra work, because there's no need to take that intake manifold off, and there's no need to take that turbo off. It stays bolted completely on like this. In some cases, you don't even have to take this cam tray off, but I'm going to go ahead and reseal them. That's the crummiest part of this job really is just cleaning up all this stuff. Other than that, it's just having all the right tools and knowing what you're doing. So all these cam journals look, for the most part, normal. There's just one of them that—this one has a little bit of a swipe. I'm gonna clean that up. I think that's the only one. I'm just gonna clean that swipe up and kind of feel it with my nail, and then I'm going to clean the cam tray up as well before I install those cams. I always put OEM tensioners on, at least, but this was customer-provided parts, so I don't know what tensioner that is, but it looks legitimate. Just did one last final wipe down, and I'm ready to install the timing cases: brand new lower timing case and new gaskets for the upper timing case.