Vaseline vs Holymar
 

When rebuilding your engine which do you like to use or which do you think works better?

Vaseline or Holymar sealant

I have used both and I think the sealant works better.

umm, i used both on the same rebuild.....hmmm

Try the Lickity Slit Personal Lubricant at Walmart.

Umm, what are you asking? You are supposed to use both vaseline AND hylomar sealant (or silicone sealant) on a rebuild. The vaseline is for the coolant and dowel pin o-rings, and the side and corner seals (to help them stay in place/add some lube when putting the rotors in). The hylomar is used to seal the "legs" of the rotor housings to the cast iron housings so that when you take a hard corner and your oil sloshes up that high, it doesn't leak out.

So, in reply, i prefer both.

Instead of Vaseline, I use Crisco, and for the sealant, I use HondaBond -- same as Pineapple Racing.

i think he is talking about the use on the rotor housing to side housing water seals

Im talking about no vaseline at all, sealant only, compared to vaseline and sealant on the legs.

I use holymar and assemblee goo and STP.

your gonna ask what assemblee goo is it's basicaly extremely thick vaseline with a higher melting temp I believe it melts at 130F and is very sticky and a dark green color. About the only place you'll find it is in a transmission shop because it's a transmission assembly lube but for holding the side and corner seals it's hard to beat it will resist the corner seal spring tension and keep them down.

So basically everyone agrees on vaseline type product on the main orings and sealant on the legs?

crisco, huh? is that true and if so why crisco?

sounds sarcastic to me?

hrmmmm....maybe he's using the crisco in the exhaust ports before he "ports" it....cough
and if that's the case I bet the other stuff he's using isn't holymar!

Yes, Crisco. No sarcasm intended. When Rob Golden was trained by Mazda, this is what they were taught to use. You put it in a big plastic syringe (similar to what they use for epoxy, but only one tube) and shoot it into all the seal grooves. As you run the tip (wider than the gooves) over the grooves, it fills them to the top and levels it off perfectly. It's very thick and will hydraulically lock the seals in place. What is squeezed out past the seals is great assembly lube, plus your fresh engine smells like french fries -- er, freedom fries -- when you light it off. :)

Found a picture, for those who might still be skeptical. This is an engine I built at Pineapple Racing for my Grassroots Motorsports $2,001 Challenge car, back in 2000. You can read more about it in the April 2002 issue of GRM.

http://rx-sevenandahalf.com/misc/Crisco.jpg

And, this is how the engine looked when I was done:

http://rx-sevenandahalf.com/misc/1stChallengeEngine.jpg

Impressive . . .

I like the quickness idea of the seringe.

the assemblee goo is too thick for a syringe.......besides I'm building engines no making pie crusts.
also crisco is veggie based and won't combine with engine oil and is actually a contaminate to you lubrication system.

I use Vaseline and see no need to change. As for the legs, I've tried sealant and Hylomar. I think my next engine will get sealant.

I use a small syringe and hylomar and only apply only a small amount inside the grooves just enough to hold the seals in place, unlike some that I have seen that use an excessive amount. And I use RED high temp RTV sealant on the legs and just a little sealant around the dowell pin area. And for the bearings I use white lithium grease for assembly. Once the motor is together and torqued down I squirt 20-50w Castrol inside each housing and spin the motor several times and remove any excess through the exhaust port. That's the way I've done it for over 10years and it works fine for me.

13btnos:

I think holymar in the orings is a good idea, that is why I posted this thread to see if I was crazy or what. I have done it before and seemed to work well.

Why the red on the legs? Better for higher heat? I thought blue is supposed to be the best?

I have been using red high temp for ever and haven't had any issues with it. It just seems to me to hold up better and also if you do happen to have excess squeeze out when you torque down the motor you just wait until it cures and hardens then you simply scrape the excess away. Yeah the red clashes with some of the color schemes I paint motors but I won't change my ways that's just the way I do things. Some of my friends think I'm overkill with sealant but hey who wants a oil leaking motor. Especially when you have taken the time and effort of making it look good. And yes eventually they will leak but nothing wrong with trying to slow that process down.

I haven't done a rotary yet, but have done several piston engines, and we always used chassis grease for assembly. One time I made the mistake of using silicon permatex and discovered that it can block water passages and oil passages between the head and block, and that leads to problems! Grease will wash out of the passages. Also, grease squishes around nicely while you're torqueing the head

B

Silicon is not put anywhere near a water passage on a rotary it is just put at the bottom the "legs". It's done so that when oil sloshes inside the pan it helps keep it from leaking out.

man i HATE holy. that shit never seems to dry and gets on EVERYTHING. the only bad thing with vas. is you need to flush out the coolant sys a few times to get all the oil looking rainbow out. other than that i like it... and it kinda pre lubes a but.... plus im heavy on the adding of oil into a housing when i stack a motor.... its not gonna hurt it and when you spin a motor over a few times you will be glad its in there. just keep the plugs out and spin the motor over a few times to work any extra out of the motor

I gave hylomar a try, but I think I'm done using it now. My next engine is definitely getting RTV on the legs, and Vaseline on the coolant seals.

How much Hylomar are you guys using? I only use a very small amount enough to just hold the seals in place. I've never had a problem with excess squeezing out. If your getting excess Hylomar to the point that it is getting getting everywhere and into everything then your using way too much. And Hylomar is a non-hardening sealant/dressing it will not dry.

I went ahead and used Vaseline and sealant. The little triangular end pieces of the apex seals kept popping up so I'd have to reset them. They're the common 3mm Mazda style found in the GSL-SE. All my previous engines had Atkins or early stock seals so I'd never messed with this more common type before. I should have used super glue, and will next time.

The sealant on the front legs of the engine had a chance to harden a bit. I'm sure it'll still prevent oil from seeping out, but perhaps Hylomar would have been better to use in this situation. Next time I'll use superglue and sealant. :)