Club 80-90 Forums

Can someone give me some re assurance that i havent just damaged my rebuilt engine, i need some good news at the minute! Didnt put this in technical, as I dont think it is just need a quick bit of re assurance or bad news.

Fitted the engine last week, with ofcourse new rocker cover gaskets.

Noticed a leak on the right side cover yesterday, not spurting out but bad enough to sort out. Did a search on here and decided this time to add abit of grease to the gaskets, re fitted.

Drove home from my girlfriends, about a good 10 minutes away. After a few minutes I noticed smoke out the back and could smell oil, looked and the gasket was leaking again but worse, decided it wasnt that bad and just to get home.

Got home and the gasket was peeing oil out at an alarming rate, decided to drop the lot out to see how much I had left. I collected about 1.5 - 2 litres from the sump plug, and i reckon a good half a litre was lost out of the rocker cover while doing that, so at most i would say there was 2.5 litres in when i got home.

I think the leak got alot worse in the last 5 few/5 minutes. Im hoping the oil that was left will have been enough for the short time it was running, but im abit worried.

What do we reckon?

check the gasket faces, then fit a new gasket, two minute job. run the engine and have a good look around. poss the gasket did not seat properly.

Gasket face is ok, it cant have seated properly for so much oil to come out.

Im not worried about the seal it will get sorted, im just worried if ive done any damage to the engine with probably half the oil in it there should have been for a good few minutes.

Maybe i should have put this in the technical section

Spring clips can get weak. Fairly sure they're a stock/standard item as fitted to the Type 1.

You'll be allright, if it didnt rattle and no oil light on thenfor that short while I reckon you be ok, there happiness aftger a fashion
mike

Good to hear, the oil light definately didn't come on.

Spring clips are brand new, ill just try a thin layer of grease again and try make sure the seal sits properly.

Thanks for the replies!

I have posted this previously with mixed replys but the rocker gaskets should never be greased for exactly the reason you are now having a problem.
Grease is a lubricant, designed to help surfaces slide over each other. If you put grease on your rocker cover gaskets, they are going to move and piddle out oil all over the road! Those who have greased theirs and have so far got away with it are lucky but it's a bit of a time bomb waiting to happen.
All surfaces should be grease/oil free when assembled and the clips should be quite hard to get in place if they are strong enough.
Your engine should be fine. If you didn't get the oil warning light come up then you are in the green and you engine will be ok.

I think I did see a post you made about not using grease, but on the same thread everyone apart from you said they greased them. As I had a leak and I hadn't used grease I thought I would give it a go.

I'll buy another gasket and not use grease, see what happens.

If you're having problems it may be due to the rocker cover itself. Place it on a flat surface and make sure it's level all round. It's possible it's got a twist or a bend in it somewhere, letting the oil past.
It's a good idea to put gasket sealer on the rocker cover side of the gasket to hold it in place as it can move when putting the cover back on. Just make sure it's set properly before reassembling and you should be ok.

I'll have a check but they're new and didn't notice any bends. I thought it was best not using sealant on rocker gaskets incase of blockages

It's ok to use it so long as you dont plaster the cover in it! Just enough to hold the gasket in place and wipe off any excess that squidges out the sides!

So would you bead all the way round with sealer or literally a couple of dabs to hold it in place?

Go buy a tube of 'blue hylomar' halfwits sell it I think, apply very thin smear to cover and gasket, allow to be 90%dry then stick together,dry face to the head as nowt should be needed there, nothing to leak out like with rtv etc,
mike

VWCamperfan wrote:I have posted this previously with mixed replys but the rocker gaskets should never be greased for exactly the reason you are now having a problem.
Grease is a lubricant, designed to help surfaces slide over each other. If you put grease on your rocker cover gaskets, they are going to move and piddle out oil all over the road! Those who have greased theirs and have so far got away with it are lucky but it's a bit of a time bomb waiting to happen.
All surfaces should be grease/oil free when assembled and the clips should be quite hard to get in place if they are strong enough.
Your engine should be fine. If you didn't get the oil warning light come up then you are in the green and you engine will be ok.

To be honest thats a load of balls, they even teach you in college to use a smear of grease on one side of the gasket

Johny B wrote:

VWCamperfan wrote:I have posted this previously with mixed replys but the rocker gaskets should never be greased for exactly the reason you are now having a problem.
Grease is a lubricant, designed to help surfaces slide over each other. If you put grease on your rocker cover gaskets, they are going to move and piddle out oil all over the road! Those who have greased theirs and have so far got away with it are lucky but it's a bit of a time bomb waiting to happen.
All surfaces should be grease/oil free when assembled and the clips should be quite hard to get in place if they are strong enough.
Your engine should be fine. If you didn't get the oil warning light come up then you are in the green and you engine will be ok.

To be honest thats a load of balls, they even teach you in college to use a smear of grease on one side of the gasket