Hello gentlemen .

I just want to share a little something strange that happen to me this morning.

Yesterday , I installed the Outer & Inner water jacket seals
with Petroleum jelly on the front iron.

I got busy and decided to close the engine the next morning.

But when I arrive to close to engine this morning , the outer water seal installed got bigger ! WAY bigger ! It wasn't fitting in the groove anymore.

Anyways , I'm thinking that it's because I left it under the garage heater that runs at 20C/68F .

**** eh! Haha so I decided to put it in the freezer couple hours thinking that It might shrink back , it did but not enough , I'll let it sit in the freezer day or two to see if I can save it .

So yeah , did it ever happen to anyone ?

 

if you're going to use a petroleum based grease to hold the seals you CANNOT let them sit. the outer seal is a rather basic rubber material that will absorb petroleum.

 

Well I learned something today , Thank you RE

 

Anyways to close this thread , after freezing the outer water seal 3days in the Frezzer on top of the pizza box , well...that definitely didn't work.
The seal never took its original form again , Its not good anymore.

Morale of this story is not to put Petroleum jelly on the Water seals unless the engine is being build right away. To say really .

 

Yea I was always told not to use potroleum prouducts on any rubber.

 

This is why I never use petroleum jelly. I don't like the idea of it swelling the seals regardless if you are immediately closing the motor or not. I use hylomar. It holds the seals in place and helps with sealing.

 

I use Harbor Freight/Amazon "racing formula" Hylomar (starts out very runny and thickens to very sticky).

Hylomar can be messy and time consuming. The trick I have for the water seal grooves is to suck up the Hylomar in a syringe with a tip that fits in the seal groove and just squirt a bit onto the bottom of the groove as I move the syringe.

Have to pry the seals out with your finger nail after that since Hylomar is so sticky- no fear of seal pinch when stacking plates.

 

This guy gives his reasoning for not using hylomar. I believe he uses petroleum for the water jacket o rings.

 

there's many methods and materials you can use, i have used super glue, hylomar, trim adhesive and gasket maker but i have always tried to avoid using vaseline on the coolant seals for this reason. i have never had any issue with any of the above, but you must use the appropriate amount if it doesn't shrink otherwise you could hydraulic out a coolant seal wall.

 

jsemerica

This guy gives his reasoning for not using hylomar. I believe he uses petroleum for the water jacket o rings.

No, that guy never gave a reason not to use Hylomar.
Closest he got to providing a reason was people use too much and its messy- oh, and that he stated o-rings and gaskets are made to be assembled dry (which is just wrong, some are and some aren't). Those aren't reasons. Reasons not to use a product wrong- same could be said of RTV.

Maybe he provided a reason after 20min mark where he changed the subject; you will have to tell me, it was hard to watch the 5min or so I did. The porting... assembling the rotor bearing dry... the misinformation...

Mazda tells you not to put engine assembly lube on the cooling seals. Why? Probably because they can fall out more easily.

 

i remember some guy who swore by using crisco, who also apparently couldn't build an engine to save his life.

https://www.rx7club.com/bad-fugly-bu...addox-1051600/

too bad i can't see the thread, i've been banned from the feedback area, woulda been good for a chuckle.