Nitrile or Silicone Gaskets?

[paultv]

Morning!

I'm searching for a Nitrile or silicone rocker cover gasket for my M20B25 - the very hard standard products allow weeping of oil on long drives,
must be the case pressure - it's only along the exhaust side which is lower, and spends more time submerged in oil inside - at least that's my
analysis.

Anyone know of one of these off the shelf - or is it time to get the skill knife out and make one?

Paul

[Brianmoooore]

Sure the oil is coming from the rocker cover gasket and not the head gasket? The oil feed to the cam runs very close to the edge of the gasket on the exhaust side, and frequently weeps a small amount of oil.
Are you sure the oil separator built into the rocker cover isn't full of gunge after your head gasket failure?

[paultv]

Hey Brian,

Good points, the cover was pressure washed and appears totally clean, and there is no oil exiting at the head gasket joint, but oil appears on the lower forward exhaust manifold nut, as well as then wetting the block below this. I pulled the studs and checked that there is no crack or oil outlet through the head threads there.

Next up is testing the cover with a temporary wet gasket, only problem is that the oil only escapes with the engine under some load, and not at tick over.

Thanks for the input, I'll test further over the next week before the next long trip planned for early April, assuming the UK authorities will let me in!!!

Paul

[Brianmoooore]

There's a lot more under the steel plate inside the cover than an empty box. There's a labyrinth of small chambers that can fill with gunge if the oil has emulsified at any time.

[paultv]

Just a catch up...

I bought a sheet of nitrile rubber and cut a new rocker gasket - now the head is dry as a bone!

I also discovered my oil pressure switch was leaking oil - not from the sealing washer but through the connector pin! so I guess the diaphram or whatever
it has inside has perished - I found my undercarriage covered in a fine layer of oil after the last 12 hour sprint in the car -


Paul

[paultv]

Fitted the new oil switch and voila! now my oil light goes off immediately the engine starts - used to be about 3 seconds after
which had me thinking about oil pressure, engine wear and the pump.

Noticed a lot of people have this lazy oil light issue - so maybe spend a fiver on a new switch! needs a deep skinny 24mm socket to fit it.

Paul