dumb valve cover question

[innerself]

are the stock valve covers on a type 1 engine supposed to have any kind of rubber on the surface of the valve cover that meets with the valve cover gaset/head? the idiot who had the car before me must have tried to use an old gasket or something, and put gobs and gobs of this yellowish/clear silicone on the side of the gasket that touches the valve cover. when i was scraping all this sh*t off i noticed there was another layer of black rubbery material on the valve cover. should i remove this?

i just wanted to know because i scraped most of it off the valve cover that had the horrendous amounts of silicone on it, before i noticed it was on the other valve cover too. i just wanted to make sure i could clean it off of the valve covers without problems.

[79SuperVert]

Only thing that should go between the valve cover and the head is a gasket. Otherwise both sides should be down to clean bare metal before you reassemble. They make the gaskets from rubber or from a cardboard-like material. I don't put gasket seal on mine and they don't leak.

[70 140]

no, clean that crap off. Make sure the gasket surface is clean on both the head and the cover. VW's used a cork gasket to seal this. You can get the gaskets for cheap, a couple of dollars. You really should change them everytime you adjust your valves.

[j.pickens]

I disagree about changing the cork valve cover gaskets at every valve change. I find that the gaskets that have "broken in" reseal much better than new ones. I would change them every 10000 miles or 2 years, whichever comes first.

[fknbrkn]

i recommend the cork gaskets. one time all the store had were the rubber ones. so i tried them. they leaked. bad.

[innerself]

thanks. yeah i took my engine out because im investigating a clutch problem i have. so while it is out i gave it new bosch super wa8c spark plugs, and did a valve adjustment. that guy put on an unbelieveable amount of silicone on.

time to get out the razor blade again.
i was also thinking of giving it new points and condesor, because i asked a friend why my car used to start right up, and now takes a turn or two to get going, and he said it was probably my points. could be loose starter too i guess.

[gt1953]

I replace my gaskets and I use a thin coat of wheel bearing grease as a sealent. mine do not leak. Never heard of replacing them every two years.

[innerself]

gt1953: yeah man, the idiots guide says to put a thin layer of wheel bearing grease on the side of the gasket that goes on the head, and thats what i plan to do.

ive gotten the surface of the valve cover that touches the gasket all nice and shiny. took me about 2 hours to get both down to bare metal but its done now ( i had a handful of silicone and gunk when i was done ). im gonna wait until i put my engine back in to put the valve covers on because i had clearance issues with my 1600cc in my 1956 oval's engine compartment when pulling the motor. i had to bend the side cooling tin that goes over the heads, and cut about an inch of metal off that lip on the rear apron that holds the breast plate tin.. to clear the heat riser.

[3foldfolly]