<VV> oil seepage and treatment

[Sethracer at aol.com]

Inflation, though small, has finally increased the value of my advice from  
two cents to three cents. So here is my additional caution on the use of 
RTV in  seals.
It should be said that there different reasons for sealing areas on the  
motor. Racers have quite different needs than the everyday Corvair repair guy, 
 and the current car factories have different needs as well. 
Racers need the seal to work right now, and then allow the part to be  
removed for inspection in a short time - sometimes shorter than they imagined.  
They are usually not sealing up something for a several-year period. A good  
example is valve covers. The racers will often remove the valve cover 
between  races to check valve/rocker adjustment, valve spring condition, as well 
as  pushrod issues. 
A regular Corvair mechanic, including home-based repairs on your own car,  
would normally like to see the valves correctly adjust then left alone for  
years. So you might want to basically glue the gaskets in place - a little 
is  plenty - install them, tighten the bolts and go on your way. The racers 
may glue  the gasket onto the valve cover and grease the front side of the 
gasket to make  for easy removal and re-installation.  
Now the factories - of today - balance two priorities: speed of assembly  
(=cost) and field repair costs during the warrantee period. You can take as 
long  as you want to install your valve covers - they cannot. That is what 
accounts  for factory replacing gaskets with auto-injected adhesives. They 
might work  better, they will certainly cost less - at least through the 
assembly and  warrantee period! The other item I thought I would mention is that 
many of our  car parts are over 50 years old. Surfaces have been nicked, 
sheet metal has  warped and aluminum has been scraped and gouged. The sealers of 
today are -  as folks have mentioned - much better that 10-15 years ago. 
But they are only as  good as the person installing them. Lumps of left-over 
rtv sealer that get  ingested into the screen, the oil pump and maybe the 
filter are displacing and  maybe blocking some of oil that your engine depends 
on for it's life.
(There it is, my three cents worth!) -  Seth