front cover gasket or rtv?
 

hi,
can i use rtv instead of front engine cover gasket?
is it right?
thanks

My vote would be for the metal gasket. You don't want to do that a second time.

never use rtv for front cover if you retain a working OMP
it is very easy to inadvertently seal off the passage through to the OMP in the timing cover

Rotary Performance used RTV on mine. They put in a metal tube for the oil system.

the gasket works fine and you don't have a risk of excess RTV causing a problem.

using a roll pin or tube in the OMP passage and silicon gasket maker
is a racer method of having the OMP functional but ensuring the timing cover O ring is torqued tighter without the thickness of a gasket

Also, the gasket is accounted for with the front cover O-ring. If you just use RTV, the front cover will be on tighter and could crush the O-ring too tightly or tear it, causing a failure and low oil pressure.

Either a stock paper gasket or the newer metal one.

Dale

thanks guys,
ok i will use a gasket but never heard of a metal one?how a metal gasket can seal?
do anyone have a part number?
thanks!!!

afaik mazda OEM '93+ are all steel now, if you find a paper one then it is old stock.

I did mine with rtv with no problems. When doing research a couple years ago when I did mine everybody was saying to go rtv.

That's actually good news. About three years ago MAZDAMOTORSPORTS was still sending the red one out in gasket kits. I had to order the metal one separately.

yesterday i disasembled a japanese 97 ebgine and there was indeed a metal gusket fitted.

BUT:

there was not there the oring and the teflon buckup ring.
i noticed that the gasket fits and seals arount the oil pasage but is this the newer desighn or someone forgot to fit an oring and a teflon ring?

thanks

BRO! Did you use any O Ring in there? Or O ring Teflon combo?

With the newer metal front cover gasket, you use NO o-ring or Teflon spacer. Throw the gasket on, bolt on front cover, done.

Atkins Rotary sells that gasket -

https://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/M...90-10-502.html

Dale

added one to an order from Mazda Motorsport the other night from the competition part section; my understanding is that you don’t need race results to order from the competition parts list


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx7...3de12713b.jpeg
.

that is correct, anyone can sign up and buy comp parts, comp parts are supposed to have the @ symbol when you check them in your EMDCS.
basically the conflict is that the dealers pay to sell Mazda stuff, so they get angry if Mazda sells stuff without them. since the dealerships can't buy competition parts, this setup works, because its not competition.

So with the metal gasket no sealer of any kind is needed? Like Sgt Blue says, I dont want to do it twice LOL

No sealant, Make sure both surfaces are totally clean, no old RTV or bits of old gasket, has to be good, flat metal. Then just toss it in and bolt on the front cover.

Dale

it’s metal core with a thin rubber coating on both sides that fills in minor imperfections. It was OEM on the RX8 Renesis front cover except that one has a slightly different bolt pattern than the FD3 gasket.
.

Yeah, I got the one from Atkins a while back, just looking for a time to pull the motor and dive in.

ok, well as Dale stated they were made specifically to eliminate the RTV hassle

ive seen a few where the paper gasket broke between bolt holes and gets pushed out and leaks a lot, metal gasket would fix that
metal gasket also fixes the o ring chicanery.

I just replaced my pushed out paper gasket with one of the metal ones. The iron does have the recess machined for the oil pump washer and o-ring, and I put a new washer and o-ring in. Now I am worried I should not have put them in. That area didnt pull down tight until the final torque setting. Should I take it back apart and re-do it?