Hi everyone,
So when I was taking out the temp sender to install a VDO sender the stock sensor broke off. So I had to remove the thermostat housing and water pump. I recall putting a smear of silicone on the gaskets of fords, but don't know if that still holds true for Rovers.
Anyone have a preference? I'm leaning towards nothing, but a lit smear wouldn't hurt I suppose. The p gasket I got is the updated metal rubber one. The thermostat housing is your regular paper type.
Never use silicone for anything. Hate that schmidt. OK check that, it has one good use and this is the only one, which is to seal the corners of V8 intake manifolds. Otherwise it is the devil's spawn.
If you must smear something use hylomar on both sides of the paper gasket. Overkill, but what the heck.
I don't share Bill's disdain for silicone, more so just the sight of gobs of it gooping out of every seam. I try to wipe off any excess and don't use too much because it wastes product and does tend to clog passages and so forth when pieces fall of inside an assembly.
That said, I used Hylomar for my P-gasket. Since it doesn't cure I think it is a little more tolerant of creep and differential expansion and contraction that cause these things to leak.
I haven't replaced the "P" gasket but I did replace the noisy water-pump, and I used grease there....no leaks. On old standard T-stat housings (ours uses a rubber seal on the 300Tdi's), I never had a problem using grease on those paper gaskets.
I've got a p gasket hanging in the garage and the old one started dripping, so this gasket is on my short suspense to do list. I'd love to hear a verdict on the grease. I was planning on doubling down both sides with hylomar as I hate dealing with cooling leaks, but hate how much work it is to get that crap off again on the next change out.
Specific to the P gasket, I've had to replace mine twice in this engine. What I found after taking it apart the second time was that the raised groove in the metal gasket ended up not falling between the metal faces it was intended to seal, but on the edge of the water opening/path. My reaction was to just make sure that the new one aligned/sealed appropriately, but what I found was that I needed to take a hole file to one of the bolt holes in the gasket so it would shift slightly and better align the gasket. Seals fine now. Don't recall if it was sh*t part or not. This is the fourth time I've been involved in changing out a 300TDi P gasket, and first time I've run across it. Anyway, curious if anyone else has had a similar experience, and perhaps something to watch out for. May have just been a bad gasket, but two? That said, we often place large orders including multiple gasket sets, so may have been a pair in a bad batch. No idea.
I've replaced about 25 or more I'd guess and smear grease on the gasket and have yet to hear of one leaking. I think the first one was over 10yrs ago.
Not a big fan of silicone.......see plenty of silicone abuse and failure. It has it's uses I'd suppose, but not in my shop unless it is a specific product that is manufacturer recommended.
One thing I have noted is that joints sealed with silicone will come apart fairly easily and cleaning the gasket off is not at all difficult (probably due to the leaking). Greased gaskets (oddly) seem to stick to aluminum with surprising tenacity and require a bit more grunt to disassemble and clean. This applies to parts that have been together for a while.
Hylomar makes a wide variety of products many of which are silicone based. The universal blue is non silicone and an excellent product. I use it in many areas but usually as a gasket maker not a dressing. It makes a good dressing but I prefer assembly grease. Quicker, cheaper, cleaner and proven effective.
So it looks like my P-gasket was installed with LOTS of silicone (rebuilt engine with roughly 3k miles on it now), and is now leaking right where the blue arrow is.
Anything else I should do while in there on a new(ish) rebuild, which I believe has new water pump and what-not already?
My P-gasket is leaking so I was going to replace it today. I replaced the water pump in 2012 so I should have just done the P as well while I was at it... but I didn't. Do I have to remove/replace the water pump gasket in order to get to the P? I do, don't I? I also read that you could/should replace the core plug but I don't have a spare one of those. Is the core plug also one of those, while-you're-at-it things that should be replaced regularly?
These 3 long bolds comming through the water pump cover, the bracket into the front of the engine should be fastened first to give the gaskets and sealents a chance to cover the areas in a flat overlay.
I also have a new 100A alternator that I've been meaning to install. Would now be a good time to do it? The alternator has to come out anyway for the P, right? Which wire and what gauge do I need to upgrade to with when going from 65 to 100A alternator?
Should you? Yes. Do you have to? No. I put a Disco alternator on my 300 Tdi 110 and didn't do anything to the wiring. I also wasn't running a winch on that truck, so it may be more important for you to run an additional wire or replace yours with a larger wire.
You'll be in the neighborhood so I would do the alternator as well. You can do the p gasket without disturbing the water pump. The whole bracket that mounts the alternator and that houses the water pump comes off. Minimum 8 awg on the new wire.
Does your wire go directly to the starter from the alternator? Mine loops around the engine counter clock wise and has all sorts of other wires connected to it (injection pump, etc) Looks like it would be quite the project to replace that one.
I ran my clockwise and then around the back of the engine to keep it away from the turbo. I made a whole new harness for my install so it was easy in my case. 8 awg gives you 6 feet to work with.
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