The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

My new rear crankshaft oil seal housing gasket looked like it had been cut out from a bit of A4 paper, and nothing like the thickness of the seemingly plastic gasket I took off. Smeared a bit of sealing compound on the gasket just to make sure. What I'm wondering is a replacement sump gasket going to be the same thin paper, any recommendations, is the RB one actually fine to use? A smear of sealing compound is fine, but at the moment it looks like a bath surround and I'm concerned about what horrors that might be covering up!

Give these people a try - I enquired if I could purchase single gaskets from them - yes was the reply, just tell us which gasket you require.

http://www.jmgaskets-seals.co.uk/default.asp

Regards
Paul

or you could buy some proper gasket paper,comes in different thickness and sizes

Thanks both, thought I'd buy a complete bottom gasket set from J&M, reckon I can't do any worse, and at a tenner it was good value.

Your opinion on quality/thickness when it arrives would be welcomed...

The 'modern' gaskets seem far too thin to me. 'waffer thin' as the saying goes. I generally m=now make them from gasket paper. Also been know to use two gaskets on the sump.

xvivalve wrote:Your opinion on quality/thickness when it arrives would be welcomed...

Alun

The quality of the gasket was good / excellent fit as for the thickness, I expected it to be as thick as the one removed (I am not saying it was thin as paper) it wasn't - it was proper gasket material not like some gasket which are made of grease proof paper.

Fitted the gasket in Feb 2014 with a smear of gasket sealent between the gasket and the sump - no leaks at all.

Paul

Thanks Paul, I thought you'd just enquired rather than actually bought, else I'd have aimed the question at you directly, sorry if it came across as missing you out!

I acquired a quantity of NOS rocker cover gaskets about 18 months ago, I'd estimate them to be at least 5 x thicker than those currently available!

They're arriving Friday Alun, so if my micrometer will register something that thin I'll post the thicknesses.

Is the way to go. Lots of set on ebay or eBay USA. I make sure I do have at least 2 complete sets in stock. Most payen. They do show up regularly.

Jeroen

Bottom gasket set arrived from J&M Gaskets, and has everything in it that is in UKC1958/GEG278. Some measurements as promised:

143845 Rear Crankcase seal housing 0.49mm
145916 / 144666 Lower timing chain cover 0.36mm
147458 Oil Pickup 0.49mm
145017 Water pump cover 0.22mm
GEG550 Sump Gasket 1.0mm

The included rear crank seal (that I paid £8 for on it's own) is a NAK branded one, but the lip on it is smaller than the one I sourced locally and my original, not sure on how relevant that is.

Appears to the amateur mechanic's eye to be good quality, sump gasket seems to be made of two different materials sandwiched. Paid £16.36 delivered, that's cheaper than the full kit from other more well knows sources.

I was fed up with the poor quality gaskets available, sump gaskets only 0.5mm thick as were the cam cover gaskets. It was virtually impossible to seal either sump or cam cover on my race engines. I have had some made up in 1.5 thick material and now have bone dry engines. These can be bought from me if anybody wants them.

A problem I have come across is overtightening of sump bolts, which distorts the steel of the sump into a bell. When this sump is then offered up to a gasket it will only seal where the bolts are. What I do is put a piece of alloy in the vice and tap the distorted bell flat with a good old fashioned hammer.
Cam covers are under engineered with too few bolts and a gasket that often slips out causing an oil leak right over the red hot exhaust manifold. I never fit a gasket and instead, use a smear of Hylomar and go commando, metal to metal
Obviously what I have written is just my opinion however it does work for me.
Porsche often don't use gaskets and Loctite type sealing is used (944 cam box).

The dump gasket needs to be thick enough to 'crush' in order to seal. Only being 0.5mm thick does not allow any 'crush'. Hence the reason I have had them made thicker. Even if the dump is not perfectly flat there is enough material to 'crush'!

The cam cover gasket is not designed to the same tolerances as the Porsche or modern cars which also rarely use gaskets. I prefer to stick with using a decent gasket.