Putting in an order for new water jacket seals. What is advised between Atkins Brown and OEM Red and why? I tried searching but couldn't find anything.

Also I heard he offers a discount for forum users. Is he still doing this

 

There is Also Pineapple Racing HD Walter seals

 

I like the oem seals never had a problem. They have been proven time and time again. They can fail however, but this is true for any seal made out of any material. I believe the Atkins Browns are just brown viton cord stock type which they themselves use to Say was not a good sealing material until they started selling them. There are diffrent o-rings to chose from other then atkin but are all just about the same either black or brown viton or silicone or Teflon encapsulated silicone. The biggest difference is that with these non oem you can reuse the seals if you were to have to reopen the engine for whatever reason with the oem the Teflon layer will just fall off and come apart. Either way if it were up to me I would choose OEM but that's just my preference.

 

Some of them don't like ethanol IIRC

 

I built a motor once with aftermarket water seals. They were a little on the small side, so you really had to stretch them and make them fit.

Since they fit so tight, as I was assembling the motor one jumped out of the groove and was pinched by the rotor housing. Didn't discover it until the engine was started and the motor was geysering water. That was the last time I used an aftermarket seal.

The aftermarket seals are trying to fix a problem that's easily prevented. Seal failures are normally caused by overheating or poor cooling system maintenance. There's a million threads on keeping an FD running cool and comfortable, and simply changing coolant once a year and running 50/50 water/coolant will solve corrosion.

All that said, I don't have any first hand experience with those new Atkins seals.

Dale

 

I just had my builder install them in my rebuild. I will let you know how they turn out. I'm planning on going water meth injection for reliability 50/50

 

Just placed an order for the Atkins one. I will chime in with updates.

 

Please do

 

I agree with Dale- run a very good quality 50/50 corrosion inhibiter and water (distilled if possible) and this will prolong a lot of the water jacket seal issues you would otherwise have.

I've seen the seal grooves in the irons eaten right away due to poor cooling system maintenance.

I run a sacrificial (zinc I think ) anode which is inside the cooling system submersed full time in the coolant, so its electrically conductive. Zinc (or whatever material I chose) is more reactive than aluminum and iron, and any electrolysis that is occurring inside the water jacket of the engine, is directed towards the most reactive metal in the system- which is the anode. Corrosion attacks the sacrificial anode and leaves the iron housings and aluminum housings alone.

This along with scheduling a reminder every January to dump/flush the coolant and check the condition of the anode (and yes it is being eaten slowly), means I have a good process in place to look after the cooling system.

I also check the coolant periodically by dipping a multimeter prong into the coolant, and one to the negative post of the vehicle battery, to check for stray current or high Mv conductivity readings, which indicate the coolant has lost its corrosion inhibitors and needs flushing early. Last multimeter test, I actually got 0Mv continuity between the coolant and the neg post, which means there is likely very negligible electrolysis occurring inside my water jacket- I've been working towards that reading for 6 months.
I also earth strap all accessories that are not connected electrically to the engine (insulated by being mounted inline of rubber hoses) but have coolant flowing through them- like the alloy AST tank.