Has anyone tried this method of attaching/sealing the valve cover gasket?

[batever]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried this method of securing a valve cover gasket, which I read in an article on adjusting valves on a slant v-6, on a Honda. This tip, which I will quote in full, seemed to have intriguing potential as a money (and time) saver:

While I'm at it, let me pass along a neat trick: when installing the new valve cover gasket, use RTV goop to hold it to the valve cover, but use a thin layer of *grease* on the other side instead of goop. That way, when you take the cover off again 30k miles later for your next adjustment, the gasket easily comes right off the cylinder head and can be reused. And assuming all the surfaces are flat enough to make good contact, the grease will actually seal oil just as well as the goop.

http://www.earlycuda.org/tech/valves.htm

What do people think? Anyone ever heard of it or done it?

Thanks for your input.

[d112crzy]

It shouldn't be that hard to take off the valve cover gasket in the first place.

And how often are you taking it off that you NEED to make it easier to take off?

Clean the head surface, use RTV on tight corners. Done.

[Jon]

I agree, how often are you taking your valve cover off that you want to make it easier?

And this is just to make it able for you to reuse the valve cover gasket? They are what, $10 tops... I honestly don't see any problem with the whole idea, but just can't figure out the logic of trying to make it easier to take it off...

[batever]

Thanks for your input, frootloops and d112crzy.

I agree that it sounds like it would work. Also, that we don't need to change the valve cover gasket that often. But...if you saw a situation where it was likely you were gonna open it up a couple times over a short period, this method could save some time and a small amount of cash as well.

Again, a lot of the motivation for the tip was largely that this guy was doing frequent valve adjustments. He was writing about racing earlier American slant 6 engines--not nearly as well engineered as a 90 or later Honda engine--and how you could get more performance out of the engine by altering the valve lash by one or two thousandths of an inch...

But if you did do that (particularly on those older engines) you would have to stay way on top of the adjustment as compared to with a daily driver. So, yes, you would be in the valve cover a lot more often than you need to on an Accord. And that would be the rationale for reusing the gasket. You also wouldn't need to bother cleaning the head surface as meticulously when you replaced the gasket, because you wouldn't be needing RTV there.

But also, $10 is $10--actually I think Autozone charged me $15 last time. My thought was, if it works just as good as a new gasket, why not save the time of cleaning both mating surfaces and reuse the same gasket this way, leaving it attached to the valve cover when the cover is removed, then just popping the cover with the attached gasket back on for at least one more usage of the gasket. Of course, only if it really works.

I just thought it was a clever sounding trick so I wanted to see what people thought about it/whether they ever had heard of such a thing.

[wed3k]

ill just pay the 15 bucks.

[d112crzy]

It's actually not much of a trick. More like common sense in the mechanic world.

[cp[mike]]

thats something i usually do, but just with leaving it wet with oil instead of adding grease, since that could get messy. then drying it off and adding rtv when its going to be on for a while. this is a helpful suggestion to somebody who might not thought of this, but id hope most of the time it would be common sense that if you plan to open it again soon, that you wouldnt glue it shut until youre done...

[starchland]

It's actually not much of a trick. More like common sense in the mechanic world.

common sense def aint taught in skool anymore!