MGW Shifter-Cobra Bob gaskets??

Cavallo said:

Gasket is always better then RTV, too much RTV can and will do lots of harm.......

Most are to young to know why RTV was used in the first place................

RTV is not used properly 98% of the time.

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Cavallo said:

Gasket is always better then RTV.

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Cavallo said:

RTV is used for big gaps, like corners of the intake.
For RTV to work proper it needs to set up.

For flat machined surface a glue and gasket is better. Like thermo housing and water pump come to mind.

The MAIN reason RTV was used in the first place was chevy Valve covers from the factory. RTV conformed better to the cheap azz tin covers and huge end gaps on the intake where the stock rubber gaskets would squeeze out and leak.

I use High Tack and gaskets for years with zero leaks.

FYI

The big cause for leaks is excessive blow by, think about it.................

The Mechanic

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hotrodnut said:

In a lot of places gaskets are the best route for sealing fluids from leaking but for a shifter I would tend to lean towards they may not be. The reason is mostly because for a shifting mechanism there are forces that are not in plane with the surface every time a shift is made. This is mutiplied when hard speed/power shifts are done.

Think about this, if there are no bolts holding the shifter in every time a shift is made it would lift out of its mounting position on the opposite side of the shifting direction. So, when bolted in place the shifter is still trying to move out of its mounting position. The bolts on the opposite side of the direction of the shift is preventing it from lifting. With the bolts preventing it's movement out or off of the mounting surface it acts as a lever and forces the other side of the mounting plate to compress against the surface towards the direction the shift is being made.

A gasket is made of materials that compress, regardless of how much it compresses it still is a plyable material and can compress even more, especially over time and many many shifts. Add in the heat/cool, heat/cool everytime a car is driven and that will also take its toll on a gaskets thickness and plyability. All the time the gasket still retains a certain thickness on one end or the other that differs from the section of gasket that is in the center of the force in the direction it is applied. This may cause a loss of only a few thousandths of an inch on the ends being forced against but it is possible to spur up a leak from the differences.

Now, the RTV is plyable also, but the big difference is, when using RTV and the shifter is torqued down, the shifter mounting plate is pressed against the transmission mounting surface and at points all around that mounting area there are actual metal to metal surface contacts. The RTV only fills in the low spots thoughout that mounting surface preventing any leaks from occurring. The metal to metal contact surfaces will not allow any movement or compression of the transmission surface or the shifter mounting plate from being shifted so therefore over long periods of time leaks will not occur.

Some may never have a problem from using a gasket especially if always granny shifting but in my view I will take the extra insurance of using RTV in hopes that I will never have a leak and a more solid surface for making those hard power shifts more solid.

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