Bent Pushrod

[Davea Lux]

Dave would you put black RTV around the intake runners on the valley pan? I know it's a crush gasket. I also know to put the supplied RTV on the front and back valley ledges under the tab holders. Just don't want a vacuum leak and know people have varied opinions about the intake runners and getting the valley pan gasket on correctly.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have.

I generally use a light coating of the liquid permatex on the metal gasket, provides a good seal and is durable. RTV is ok for the end tabs, don't like it on the intake runners because I do not want to worry about any big globs of it coming off and getting someplace it doesn't belong. Be sure that all mating surfaces are good and clean.

Dave

 

[Little Pete]

I generally use a light coating of the liquid permatex on the metal gasket, provides a good seal and is durable. RTV is ok for the end tabs, don't like it on the intake runners because I do not want to worry about any big globs of it coming off and getting someplace it doesn't belong. Be sure that all mating surfaces are good and clean.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I'll go get some liquid Permatex. I'll keep you updated.

 

[Little Pete]

I generally use a light coating of the liquid permatex on the metal gasket, provides a good seal and is durable.

Dave

Dave is this the stuff you would use around the valley pan intake runners? Getting everything put back together now and have everything cleaned really nicely to include mating surfaces. Spent the last few weeks cleaning and painting top end engine parts before reassembly. Doing it by hand without a bead blaster or parts washer is a pain in the @#$. Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Davea Lux]

Dave is this the stuff you would use around the valley pan intake runners? Getting everything put back together now and have everything cleaned really nicely to include mating surfaces. Spent the last few weeks cleaning and painting top end engine parts before reassembly. Doing it by hand without a bead blaster or parts washer is a pain in the @#$. Thanks for your thoughts.

View attachment 194054

That stuff has been around since WW2 and for my money it is still the best overall sealant around. Just messy to work with. There should be a brush attached to the can lid.

Dave

 

[Little Pete]

That stuff has been around since WW2 and for my money it is still the best overall sealant around. Just messy to work with.

Dave

Yea, I wasn't sure if you meant this stuff or the Indian Head Shellac. Didn't figure you meant the Shellac.

 

[Davea Lux]

Yea, I wasn't sure if you meant this stuff or the Indian Head Shellac. Didn't figure you meant the Shellac.

That stuff (Indian Head) was used on the old paper style head gaskets such as those found on Mopar Flat head 6 engines. Mechanics also sometimes used oil based house paint on those paper gaskets as well.

Dave

 

[Little Pete]

That stuff (Indian Head) was used on the old paper style head gaskets such as those found on Mopar Flat head 6 engines. Mechanics also sometimes used oil based house paint on those paper gaskets as well.

Dave

Good to know about the Shellac. I see it everywhere but never knew any application uses for it. Thanks Dave!

 

[Davea Lux]

Good to know about the Shellac. I see it everywhere but never knew any application uses for it. Thanks Dave!

Also remember, that you never want to use any type pf sealant on a modern head gasket that is mostly made of plastic. The plastic is impregnated with Teflon and if you seal it, the gasket will fail. The Teflon gasket is designed to allow slippage across the gasket surface so that dissimilar materials such as aluminum heads and iron blocks can expand at different rates and not break the gasket.

Dave

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Seal your intake bolts with thread sealant. Not 100% but good insurance against leaks

 

[detmatt]

It’s worth noting that the rocker shafts have a right and a wrong way to be installed if it hasn’t already been mentioned.

 

[Little Pete]

It’s worth noting that the rocker shafts have a right and a wrong way to be installed if it hasn’t already been mentioned.

I actually made this exact mistake on this project Matt and caught myself before tightening anything down. Luckily i had another car to reference. It is good advice. I think the only difference is the rocker arm shaft oiling holes, believe they face down. The rocker arm shaft will seat and allow the bolts to go in either way.

Gotta be careful and OCD has a way of kicking in on these projects. Keep going back to recheck many times.

 

[Little Pete]

That stuff (Indian Head) was used on the old paper style head gaskets such as those found on Mopar Flat head 6 engines. Mechanics also sometimes used oil based house paint on those paper gaskets as well.

Dave

Any idea what this is? Found it laying in the power steering pump bracket. Figure I dropped it taking the A/C pump off, just not sure what it was for? Can't figure it out for the life of me.

 

[Davea Lux]

What you appear to have is a port blocker off the RV2 compressor. When replacement units are shipped from the factory, they put plates over the intake and discharge ports to keep contaminants out. You car probably had the compressor replaced at some point and the tech dropped the port cover and forgot about it. If you are really curious, you can take a digital caliper and see if the bolt holes match one of the ports. Looks like an intake/suction port blocker to me.

Dave

 

[Little Pete]

What you appear to have is a port blocker off the RV2 compressor. When replacement units are shipped from the factory, they put plates over the intake and discharge ports to keep contaminants out. You car probably had the compressor replaced at some point and the tech dropped the port cover and forgot about it. If you are really curious, you can take a digital caliper and see if the bolt holes match one of the ports. Looks like an intake/suction port blocker to me.

Dave

Thanks Dave. That is exactly what it is. I measured it with my digital calipers and it is exactly the same size. Makes sense why the tech would have dropped it right there down in the power steering pump pulley. I appreciate the help. I was very careful and accounted for everything when I pulled the top end apart and couldn't figure out where that had originated from.

 

[ynst]

This is the stuff you want to use on big block intake manifold gaskets. The "high tack" stuff works well on valve cover gaskets to hold them in place but it's too thin to adequately seal the steel shim intake gaskets. This stuff seals the intake ports on the steel shim gaskets.

As for sticking valves, I've had no less than four of my own big blocks exhibit the problem and they all were engines that sat for years in indoor storage conditions. Every one of them had rusty valve guides and stems.

My 72 Newport had an annoying valve tick for years that would go away if you poured Marvel Mystery oil down the carb. It got so bad that, eventually, #6 exhaust started hanging open so I was forced to a valve job on the engine, too. We found 5 other sticky valves.

It was the ONLY engine that I contracted out for the work as I was too busy at the time and the car was being stored 2 towns away from my garage. Even though I explicitly told the mechanic to use #3 Permatex, he put the intake gasket on with spray gasket cement, instead. The guy I sold the car to had to replace the intake gasket last summer because it started leaking.

Big blocks don't like to sit around. Condensation gets onto the valve stems and they rust. One head on my GTX was so bad that I had to hammer a valve out.

 

[doug_scott]

I wanted to do a compression test but didn't get that far because I still need to torque the rocker arm shaft down properly. Also, compression tests are not a one person job and I needed another set of hands which I did not have tonight.
View attachment 191195

Compression test on a Chrysler vehicle from pre 90s era is easily done by one person.
1. Using a zip-lock tie hold the throttle wide open
2. Remove all spark plugs
3. Remove coil wire from distributor and use an alligator.clip wire to ground it.
4. Screw the compression tester into cylinder
5. Jumper the starter relay to crank engine, get 4 or 5 "hits" of compression.
6. Repeat from srep 4 for each cylinder.

Since this is a cold engine that has not run for a very long time you will likely get low compression numbers. At this point look for consistency, all compressions within 10% of each other. If compression seems low, squirt some oil into each cylinder and crank engine over to clear the oil in case you got too much in before checking compression again. Results will very likely be higher.

Mechanics rarely have helpers for anything that can be done alone. Even bleeding brakes was done solo in most cases.

 

[Little Pete]

View attachment 195160

This is the stuff you want to use on big block intake manifold gaskets. The "high tack" stuff works well on valve cover gaskets to hold them in place but it's too thin to adequately seal the steel shim intake gaskets. This stuff seals the intake ports on the steel shim gaskets.

As for sticking valves, I've had no less than four of my own big blocks exhibit the problem and they all were engines that sat for years in indoor storage conditions. Every one of them had rusty valve guides and stems.

My 72 Newport had an annoying valve tick for years that would go away if you poured Marvel Mystery oil down the carb. It got so bad that, eventually, #6 exhaust started hanging open so I was forced to a valve job on the engine, too. We found 5 other sticky valves.

It was the ONLY engine that I contracted out for the work as I was too busy at the time and the car was being stored 2 towns away from my garage. Even though I explicitly told the mechanic to use #3 Permatex, he put the intake gasket on with spray gasket cement, instead. The guy I sold the car to had to replace the intake gasket last summer because it started leaking.

Big blocks don't like to sit around. Condensation gets onto the valve stems and they rust. One head on my GTX was so bad that I had to hammer a valve out.

Thanks for the great advice. I will look into the sealant. It's funny how many varied opinions Mopar mechanics have on the valley pan sealing.

Many have told me to do the front and back deck to pan with black RTV and that the gasket is designed around the runners to be a crushed gasket that doesn't take any sealant.

I'm on the sealant side of that debate because from my experience as a technician that only makes sense. Finding the correct sealant has been my research piece of this. Metal gaskets like this are tricky and I don't want a vacuum leak.

All my valves are free now, I checked them when I had the rocker arm shafts off.

 

[Little Pete]

Compression test on a Chrysler vehicle from pre 90s era is easily done by one person.
1. Using a zip-lock tie hold the throttle wide open
2. Remove all spark plugs
3. Remove coil wire from distributor and use an alligator.clip wire to ground it.
4. Screw the compression tester into cylinder
5. Jumper the starter relay to crank engine, get 4 or 5 "hits" of compression.
6. Repeat from srep 4 for each cylinder.

Since this is a cold engine that has not run for a very long time you will likely get low compression numbers. At this point look for consistency, all compressions within 10% of each other. If compression seems low, squirt some oil into each cylinder and crank engine over to clear the oil in case you got too much in before checking compression again. Results will very likely be higher.

Mechanics rarely have helpers for anything that can be done alone. Even bleeding brakes was done solo in most cases.

Thanks for the great advice. Soon as I get the top end back together I will give your procedure a shot with the compression test.

Can't wait to get this car out of the garage and on the road again.

Been a long journey.

I'll post some pictures soon.

 

[Davea Lux]

Thanks for the great advice. Soon as I get the top end back together I will give your procedure a shot with the compression test.

Can't wait to get this car out of the garage and on the road again.

Been a long journey.

I'll post some pictures soon.

As long as the metal mating surfaces are "shiny metal" clean, the embossed metal gasket would probably seal. They came from the factory without any sealant. A lot of these cars no longer have the perfect mating surfaces which is why the sealant becomes necessary. Both the Hi-Tack and Aviation Permatex are excellent products and will seal almost anything. The aviation grade is a little thicker and tends to leave streamers of the stuff all over everything when you pull the brush out of the can and try to apply it. The Hi-Tack is somewhat thinner but will be adequate for most sealing jobs where no pitting of the mating surfaces is involved. If one is installing an after market aluminum manifold, the factory embossed gasket needs to have a paper gasket on either side of it on the manifold and intake ports.

My opinion of spray sealants is that they are all mostly crap and I do no use them.

Dave

 

[doug_scott]

As long as the metal mating surfaces are "shiny metal" clean, the embossed metal gasket would probably seal. They came from the factory without any sealant. A lot of these cars no longer have the perfect mating surfaces which is why the sealant becomes necessary. Both the Hi-Tack and Aviation Permatex are excellent products and will seal almost anything. The aviation grade is a little thicker and tends to leave streamers of the stuff all over everything when you pull the brush out of the can and try to apply it. The Hi-Tack is somewhat thinner but will be adequate for most sealing jobs where no pitting of the mating surfaces is involved. If one is installing an after market aluminum manifold, the factory embossed gasket needs to have a paper gasket on either side of it on the manifold and intake ports.

My opinion of spray sealants is that they are all mostly crap and I do no use them.

Dave

I don't use sealant on metal gaskets, and haven't in the 40 some odd years of being a licensed mechanic. Never had an issue. I don't use sealants unless they are called for. For decades though I have used that red gasket spray from mopar to seal battery cables after cleaning them.