During a routine cambelt change it was discovered that when previous work had been done in the same area who ever had refitted it all up was a bit heavy handed with the old sealant.

 

Sealant / instant gasket is perfectly good product that when used correctly can be a time saver and save some money too. However when meeting faces are machine cut they only need a small uniform smear of sealant to make a good job, it can be very tempting to load the joint up thinking it will make a better job of it, all it does though is squeeze out into places it was not meant to.

 

These two photo's shows the upper water pipe removed, it appears to have an extra it was not meant to have, excess sealant had squeezed out and formed a large ring on the pipe end.

 

 

 

This photo shows how extreme the problem caused by excess sealant can cause, the pipe inlet has been reduced in size and flow by at least 50%. what was even odder at this point was the extra sealant was only evident on one side.

 

 

Removing the thermostat revealed more sealant and when removed completely we had found the missing sealant from the water pipe that had migrated down to the thermostat.

 

As it happened the problem had not caused any lasting damage, but a hot day and some spirited driving could have driven the engine temperature up enough with the reduced coolant flow.

 

So be careful when using this stuff, have seen similar issues with sump gaskets etc. where the excess has ended up in the sump and into the oil pick up.

 

Jeff TT

 

 

 

Good thread! A forum member told a forum member on here to be liberal with sealant when building his engine. To our horror as well! Jimmer and I found it with sealant everywhere and duly stripped out all the stuff that had been sealed and pulled out a monumental amount of sealant. Cleaned up the offending areas. Had to wash out the sump pan and blow compressed air through it as well as that was horrendous. Then a very very thin bead all the way around and refitted.

 

A tiny bit of loose sealant is enough to completely destroy an engine by blocking up oil galleries!

eek, somebody certaintly went to town on the sealant with that one.

Cheers Jeff, Another good write up and advise from the experts at Zedworld :bow:

Its a shame you didn't see my engine Jeff, "BEFORE" Jimmer rebuilt it!! You could have loaded many threads up matey!!

Al.