Good place to buy valve cover gaskets?

[MERC_DoD]

I am looking for a good place to buy valvecover gaskets for a 83 gs850 and a 81 gs450. ANY info on where, best kind or any other info would be great. Thanks

[blowerbike]

im sure your not even close to my area are you?
if you was...
i believe i have both.
i have quite a few new/OEM thick style VC gaskets that are out of the multi gasket packages they came in..
i would need a VC to match these up.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

For my 850, I swear by Real Gaskets, reusable silicone. Otherwise, go OEM gaskets and you won't have any problems. See the list of vendors on my website or on the links page of GSR.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[dwvoss]

In my recent rebuild project, I decided to give Real Gaskets a try. I'm giving up on my try. If I torque the gasket down to Real Gasket specs, it causes the engine to spit out the half moon seals. If I don't torque it to specs, then it leaks.

Seemed like a really good idea at the time, but tonight I'm going to put in an OEM gasket.

Dan

[Dogma]

In my recent rebuild project, I decided to give Real Gaskets a try. I'm giving up on my try. If I torque the gasket down to Real Gasket specs, it causes the engine to spit out the half moon seals. If I don't torque it to specs, then it leaks.

Seemed like a really good idea at the time, but tonight I'm going to put in an OEM gasket.

Dan

Last time, I turned my half moons around so the flange is on the inside. Why? Because I noticed they would fit, and it seemed to make more sense. Depending on the manufacturing of your particular head, there may not be room. Before that, I had good luck with some firm setting sealant.

Are your half moons old and squished?

[dwvoss]

No, new half moons and used Hondabond HT on the curved edges to make sure I'd get a good seal.

[bwringer]

Old "pre-squished" half-moons work better with a RealGasket.

New half-moons can still stick up enough to cause a leak with the softer RealGasket.

[Dogma]

Maybe that's what's wrong. When I put the new ones in mine a couple years ago, they stuck up above the gasket face by about a millimeter. I clamped them down over night with the cam cover, and no gasket. They've been reused several times now (especially with my epic top-end rerereassembly), with just slight weeping since the last adjustment.

[herostar]

If I re-use the half moons, do I need to put silicon or anything around them?

[Larry D]

If I re-use the half moons, do I need to put silicon or anything around them?

No silicon. You can wrap a little teflon tape around the curved portion of them.
The reason for no silicon is that a piece of it may make it's way inside the engine and block an oil passage.

[Ghostgs1]

half moon seals

I have been using the Real Gasket valve cover gaskets for several years with success. when installing the half moon seals I have been using a little Permatex Motoseal and have had no problems. Ray

[headsbikesmopars]

With the real gaskets..what torque settings do you use with them ? Thanks.

[Steve]

With the real gaskets..what torque settings do you use with them ? Thanks.

I believe the specs call for 15 INCH pounds. Note that INCH is emphasized.
That's because specs for the stock gasket are about 6-7.5 FOOT pounds, which is 72-90 INCH pounds.

The Real Gaskets don't take much more than just taking up the slack.

[DPage]

When installing my RealGasket, I don't have a torque wrench that goes down to 15 inch lbs, so I install all the bolts as hard as I can finger tight, then tighten with a wrench by about one more bolt flat (60 degrees or less of rotation).

[Mysuzyq]

I do have a Snap-On wrench, and it worked out to finger-tight + 1/4 turn...I don't bother with the torque wrench anymore, after the initial assembly, following a valve check/adjust....just periodically check them & snug up any loose ones by feel.