valve cover gasket cement?

What are you guys using for gasket cement to hold your valve cover gaskets in place until you can get the valve cover in place?

 

I use some Hi-Tack Spray Gasket, "decanted" into a cup and applied with an artist's brush, to glue the gasket to the cover; and smear the other side with silicone grease.

 

Very good. Thanks Fitz!

 

The Cam Cover and Gasket are Engineered with great precision.

Key to a well-sealed Cam Cover is the proper installation.

Once you get the Gasket affixed to the Cover, ... Paint the Gasket Surface and the Cylinder Head mating Surface with a coat of light Oil. (Marvel Oil works well)

The Rubber Donuts on the Covers Fasteners apply downward force that will spread the Gasket out flat and make a leak-free seal.
Oiling the two surfaces will facilitate the Gasket spreading.

The Gasket is sealed and re-useable.

The Donuts on the fasteners need to be in good condition or the Sealing Process will be adversely affected.

 

I can vouch for fitz' method. I used it when i put my new gasket on. Worked great, and 100% seal.

 

i use permatex #2. just dab in the crevices. let dry for a few minutes. slap the gasket in place. no smears, no smudges. no overages

there's also that yellow snot type sealer in a tube. can't think of the name.

silicone also works but not a big fan of that stuff. and takes quite a bit longer to hold.

that one time, when the weather was really cold and shitty and i was sitting home doing nothing with no plans to drive in the crap. i did my ninja. and all i had to use was loctite. talk about time consuming to make that stuff hold the gasket in place.

 

I just use engine assembly lube. The lube is very sticky so holds the gasket in place.

 

Gasket? What are those for? I got 2 bike that are 85% High Temp RTV.

I actually think its kinda sexy when you get a perfect 1/16 ring around the whole assembley.

(FYI- not really recomended for a dailey driver becuase I still believe Gaskets are long term solutions) But with that said I dont have anything that leaks, and seem to have better luck then most with the stuff. Usally I just dont want to wait 3-4 days to order one. too impatient.

 

that's why you order all your parts in the summer. and wait till winter time when you won't need the bike to work on it.

or just order your parts as you need them. IT'S WINTER TIME. you got 4 months of no riding.

 

North Carolina Brother! it was naty cold and rainy today. Two days ago we went on a 120 mile trip in 70 degree weather. Super Bowl Sunday will be 60 and I will be riding!

 

Ok, gasket glued in place with Hi-Tack as per Fitz and other side oiled as per Rick. New seals and grommets have been used and everything is back in place. I painted the cover and screws with Hi-temp engine paint and I like the way it came out. I block sanded the raised stripes and the "YICS" so that it stands out a bit then I gave it all a coat of clear Hi-temp. Hope it lasts a while.

So the valves are adjust, cover is in place - now on to balancing the carbs. I will be using the two bottle method. I've never done this before so I'm a bit on the shy side with it. I will try to remember to report back.

 

Remember to block the YICS.

 

only fill each bottle 1/3 full

 

I blocked the YICS and only filled the bottles with 3oz. of trans fluid. Worked pretty good. Three to four was off pretty far but one to two and two to three were pretty close. Still, I forgot what you guys mentioned about not running the bike too long and I melted my YICS tool a bit. When I pulled it out the rubber was pretty much destroyed. Oh well, rubber hose is cheap and I was able to clean the passage out without too much trouble.

But I have another question, my idle is higher and it seems like I can't get it down below 1050. I know that is in the acceptable range but why can't I get it lower than that? I would have messed around with it more but it was pretty cold out and I wanted to shut the door and I was tired of breathing in exhaust so I called it a day.

For those of you who are using the Morgan Carb Tune, is it that much better than the two bottle method?

 

do you have slack in the cable? it might not be letting the linkage hit the adjustment screw hard.
Don't be breathing the exhaust later in life you will pay for it carbon monoxide is bad for the brain cells

 

Yes. Light years.

 

Oh, sorry. The most likely reason you can't get it below 1050 is that you had the main screw too far out to begin with and you've adjusted yourself out of any more adjustment. Since it's idling at spec, don't sweat it just fix it next time.

 

To be able to adjust the Engine to Idle at Low RPM's, the Throttle Plates need to be "Bench Synced" with a very thin feeler-gauge material.

Thin Strips of 3X5 Card or Resume' Paper will set the Throttles at such a close tolerance, that backing-off the Idle Rod will actually close them completely.

This allows you to set the Pilot Mixture (Air) Screws to a setting that will make the Pilot Mixture the source of Air~Fuel to Idle the Bike.

 

Rick - thanks for the response. I undertand the need to bench synch when you have had the carbs off the bike for servicing but all I did here was adjust the valves and synch the carbs. I was able to adjust the idle down quite low before this procedure. Why has that changed? Anyhow, like I said, I was sick of breathing exhaust fumes so I gave it up yesterday. But I can live with an idle of 1050. I imagine it will drop a bit once everything warms up and relaxes.

 

idle is supposed to be 1100 anyways.

also keep in mind that the charging system drops with lower rpms. at an idle your basically running off half battery and half charge. the lower you go the higher the battery drains instead of charges.

 

When you adjust during sync, you're usually turning each cylinder "down." You need to start off with the master adjusting screw in ("up") far enough that you don't adjust yourself out of any more "down" adjustment range. I've done it to myself before; as I said it's no biggie as long as it's idling down and idling smoothly, fix it next time.

 

your going to have to explain that one

 

Fitz - ahh! So I should have backed the idle adjustment screw out to begin with and then started my synch? Huh ... what a dummy I am! Ok then, next time I'm on it.

Polock, I think you are miles ahead of me in tuning carbs and so whether you use the two bottle method or the Morgan Carb Tune your going to get to the end result (balanced carbs) pretty quickly. With me however, I would somtimes go the wrong way, then come close to sucking one of the bottles dry, then I would should the bike down. Then I would start it back up and forget which way I had to turn the screw and have to shut it right back down again etc. etc.

As I mentioned, as it was I still melted the rubber hose on my YICS tool (BTW - I found some hose in McMaster Carr that is good up to 450F - I will buy some and see how it works when I do the carbs on my 550 and report back).

So any tool that speeds up my ability to get the carbs tuned faster seems like a good idea for those who are "carb-challenged" like me.

Thanks again everybody - don't know where I'd be without y'all.

 

You should set-up a couple of FANS to blow come cooling air onto the engine while the bike is running during the tuning process.

If the Rubber you are using is melting, ... get some Heat Resistant tubing and make new Sealing Hoses.

 

that's why you only fill each bottle 1/3 full or less but if you want to spend some money the carbtune is the way to go

 

What, light years better?

Stone axe vs. laser beam. Or darned near.

The CarbTune runs what, $100? $120? I've got 3 XJs now, two fully operational, and the time and hassle saved by using the CarbTune is well worth it to me. I plan to keep my bikes for quite a while, I considered it a worthwhile investment in my sanity.

Plus I can get the bike to idle like a sewing machine, and snap to it when the throttle is twisted. I love it, and highly recommend it.

 

The Morgan CarbTune made the Mercury CarbStick Obsolete
Mercury CarbStick made the "Gang-of-four" Vacuum Gauges Obsolete
The Gang-of-four Set made The Single Gauge record and match Obsolete.
The Single Gauge, ... Record & Match is still as accurate as any of the devices which were developed to save, ... TIME.

But, if you know what you are doing ... and employ a Gang-of-four Aquarium Air Valve Set to Open and Close the Vacuum Lines to a Single Vacuum Gauge.

You can Synchronize the Rack as accurately as an Instrument that shows simultaneous Vacuum Readings.

THE Only difference is that you don't get the satisfaction of seeing the four indicators floating alongside each-other!

 

No, you run it IN some to begin with, so as you "back off" the individual carbs there is still some "backing off" adjustment left at the main screw.

This is done prior to/during the bench sync phase, so that once the carbs go back on, the main idle adjuster has an "operating range."

Like I said, if you're idling at 1050 you're fine (the 550 idles at 1200 don't forget, but I don't think you're working on the 550 here, are you?) Fix it next time.

 

I'm working on the 750. Ok, so I won't worry about it now. It's running fine so I'm on to the front brakes. I rebuilt both the calipers on the 750 and the caliper on the 550. Now I have to reassemble and bleed (oh joy!). Then the last thing on the 750 I want to do before Spring is to put on the fairing cheeks I finally found for it. Right now they are primered so I just need to sand them and paint them and put them on and wait for the snow to melt. Then it's on to the 550 (after I paint the ceilings for momma).

 

What you'll have to do will be determined by how the Engine responds when you transition from "Idle" -to- "Off Idle".

If the Throttles are what's maintaining the 1050 rpm's, you might have difficulty
getting some "Hesitation" out of the plant.

How's she responding to being cranked-open?

 

Seems smooth so far but I suppose the real test will be when I road test it.

 

Hi, i'm new here and i want to know where can i find a valve cover gasket for my newly bought 1981 seca 750....

 

XJ4Ever; see logo/link in site banner, upper right, PM member chacal or send an email to "info AT XJ4Ever DOT com" with your info.

You need more than the gasket itself. You'll also need the rubber/metal composite "donuts" for the hold-down bolts. The hold-down bolts have stop collars that limit how much they can be tightened; the 'donuts' are what actually press the cover down against the gasket & head.

Once those 'donuts' get compressed and baked hard, they don't work any more and even a new gasket will leak.

The good news is, once the gasket and donuts have been replaced, they can be re-used for subsequent cover removals (gotta check/adjust the valves every 5K miles, remember.)