NOT useable gaskets.

I'm sure the topic of reuseable valve cover gaskets has been gone over more then enough in the past few years but I just feel compelled to share my experiance of not knowing what the good ones were & the danger of it. I did buy & use a set of the brownish rubbery kind & I don't want to look up who I bought them from as I don't want to do any "Seller Bashing" I just want to share that they were very flimsy, baked into crisp parts that fell into the head the FIRST time I opened the covers so I was not going to try the "reuseable" kind again but after hearing the "red silicone" kind that our member Rockypoint sells were good I bought a set and I would like to say that they are Night & day differant from the flimsy brownish rubbery kind I had used before. I can tell allready that the red silicone ones from Rockypoint will be more user friendly & not turn into crispy broken little pieces falling into my valve train when I check my clearences next time. Just wanted to tell anyone who has used the flimsy rubbery kind, get them off before they get to old & toss them in the trash if you haven't used them yet!!!

Amend to Rocky Point for a bunch of good items. My red ones are well used on two Combats, sealing well yet on Trixie.

I use the standard gaskets in such a way that you can generally re-use them.

Apply gasket sealer to the removing part (i.e the rocker cover ), apply the gasket, grease the other side of the gasket and apply to the bike.

Next time you pull off the rocker cover, the gasket generally stays on the rocker cover, as it is glued onto the rocker cover.

I have the neoprene ones from RGM and am not too impressed with them, they work, but tend to get squished and don't recover.

Dave
69S

DogT said:

I have the neoprene ones from RGM and am not too impressed with them, they work, but tend to get squished and don't recover.

Dave
69S

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I have the same experience. Easy to over tighten the valve cover nuts and make the gasket squish out. Mine seem to leak worse than the paper type gasket. On a combat engine. No name, no gender.

I go along with Josh. The stock ones will last a long time like this. I did get some gray squishy ones I think from eBay a while back but have not tried them. Sorry not a big fan of the orange ones just because of looks.

Buy some high grade gasket paper from your l0cal enginnering supplier , mark out the individual cover profiles, wad punch out the stud/bolt holes, cut out the centre of the gasket (punch holes before doing this) permatex/gasket glue one side of the gasket, stick to the tappet cover, grease the other side for the head(other way around if you choose) you now have a reusable gasket !!!!
Regards Mike