why do i keep breaking vc gaskets?

mazdamx3sohc · Post by **mazdamx3sohc** » November 25th, 2006, 5:29 pm

so it was leaking again, not sure if its broken or what, the other day i tightend it down to see if that was the problem and one of the bolts broke off into the threading.....its sticking out like a millimeter. hopefully i can grab that with some vice grips, anyways i think it did this because of how hot it has been getting. any ideas???

neutral · Post by **neutral** » November 25th, 2006, 5:52 pm

Those bolts have a pretty minimal torque spec when ya tighten them down. The torque spec is only 5.0-8.8N/m: 50-90kgf/cm: 44-78inch/lbs. Didja use a torque wrench? Otherwise, ya might have just over-torqued and muscled it til it snapped. Easy to do, esp if using a regular socket drive and no torque wrench..

Bumpysbro · Post by **Bumpysbro** » November 25th, 2006, 5:56 pm

ive been through about 3 vc gaskets in the past year, i had a bolt broke off as well it had enough left outside of the head to grab it with some vic grips and i hope yours is the same. umm are you putting sealant on the gasket? mine leaked when i did that. where is it leaking from the front, back, sides? and how much sorry to hear about your trouble with that i had the same thing and mine seemed to have stopped leaking for whatever reason.

ya probably just overtorqued it like neutral said.

mazdamx3sohc · Post by **mazdamx3sohc** » November 25th, 2006, 6:05 pm

well it was leaking before the bolt broke, its still not leaking around the broken bolt thank god. i didnt tighten them to hard cuz i was told that they are minimal tourque specs and i thought maybe it came loose when my car use to vibrate from not having balanced wheels, i have a tiny bit left to grab i hope i can do it. and i did not use any silicone stuff or whatever, just the gasket.

torpedan · Post by **torpedan** » November 26th, 2006, 12:07 am

When ever i torque down VC bolts i usually put my palm on the top of the wratchet or I use a Nut Driver, the nut driver is usually the better Idea if you are not sure where the torque spec should be by hand.

If the VC is toruqed unevenly it will lead to it leaking, most gaskets are picky and finiky and the older a motor gets the worse it gets. Overtightening can cause problems as well, espically if you fully tighten one side then do the other, just about any gasket should be tighted in the manor one would do a headgasket, two rounds is usually fine for a VC though. You need to use silicone in the places it was orignally or else the VC will leak, its there for a reason, most of the times its usually at places where the VC gasket takes sharp turns.

If there are serious deformities of the VC or head contact surfaces you are not going to get a gasket that will likely give you a seal on its own, you can on the other hand make a gasket yourself. They sell tubes of a "gasket maker" compound which is just more of a hopped op silicone. It takes a bit of practice to it right though as of you have to use lots of it and if you over torque it when its wet your going to squeeze out your gasket and have metal touching metal.

Unless if the bolt is crossthreaded or rusted in, just remove the valve cover and unscrew it with plyers. Odds are you just managed to snap the thing from all the times its been retorqued, I have managed to break a few even using just my palm of the top of a wratchet.

mazdamx3sohc · Post by **mazdamx3sohc** » November 26th, 2006, 9:28 am

so should i start by getting a new gasket, lightly torquing it and following some sort of tightening pattern? what order to i tighten it?