Don’t Use “Silly-cone” Gaskets…

In the mix of parts I received throughout this project and my current project, I wound up getting a rather robust looking silicone oil pan gasket from EME. I wound up not using it on the project, but it did get me thinking about silicone gaskets and reusability. Later, when I was planning to install the oil pan distance ring for more oil capacity (better cooling), I opted to install silicone gaskets as a test. I did not get the EME gaskets but found another supplier instead. In a late-night fit of purchasing madness, I got my oil pan gaskets and a couple sets of valve cover gaskets. My thinking was that if they could be reused indefinitely, these would be a nice addition.

$150 and a week later, I had all my gaskets. Installing these was a bit of a pain. They are rather thin at 1/16″ thick. This means they are quite floppy. Getting them aligned was a challenging with them shifting around a bit. I had to install two of them for the job so there was a gasket above and below the oil distance ring. It worked out alright, but the whole process was a bit fiddly.

One thing I did not notice when I ordered these was the torque values from the manufacturer. they wanted a maximum of 15 inch pounds for each of the oil pan bolts. I actually thought this was a bit of a typo since the factory torque on these bolts is about 9N. 15 inch pounds is just over 1N, so these would be quite a bit loose. I proceeded and put them in at 18 inch pounds. Over time, I periodically tightened them up, gradually getting to the factory torque. Mainly, the bolts need to be kept secure and they will back out from vibration if they aren’t tight enough.

After about 400 miles, the gaskets were clearly showing signs of creeping out from between the parts. After 900 miles, I decided to call the experiment a fail and swapped them back to standard gaskets. In the end, I can say they definitely did not stick to the parts, so cleaning the sealing surfaces was a breeze. As a replacement for a usable gasket, they are a total fail.