Wilsons Sandbox

I'm in final stages of putting my motor back togehter after the cranshaft bearing decided to eat itself. When I pulled the head gasket off, I found KHI had installed it with black rtv on both sides. I have never seen this on a head gasket, and wanted to get other opinions on this. Should I use gasket sealer on the head gasket or not. Also, just wanted to give props to Mark for selling me the head gasket and shipping it quickly and packaged extremely well. Thanks Mark! Hunter A17 - on the mend '83 V45 Interceptor Marion, NY

I'm in final stages of putting my motor back togehter after the cranshaft bearing decided to eat itself. When I pulled the head gasket off, I found KHI had installed it with black rtv on both sides. I have never seen this on a head gasket, and wanted to get other opinions on this. Should I use gasket sealer on the head gasket or not. Also, just wanted to give props to Mark for selling me the head gasket and shipping it quickly and packaged extremely well. Thanks Mark! Hunter A17 - on the mend '83 V45 Interceptor Marion, NY

What do you need to know? I suggest that you install a relay to power the grip heaters and other accessories so that these are automatically switched on and off by the ignition key. I always wire the relay's control winding to be powered by the city light wire but ground the relay to the starter side of the starter relay. The reason for using the city light wire to turn the relay on is that it is the handiest circuit controlled by the ignition switch. The reason for grounding the relay to the starter rather than to the bike's frame is that this strategy will switch the relay off when the starter is operating so that the load of accessories is not on the battery when maximum battery power is needed for cranking. Email directly with questions and I'll walk you through the process. A warning is that you will learn more about wiring than you may wish as I don't believe in the "connect the white wire to the black wire with green stripe" approach. HIH Norm [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The general practice with head gaskets is to install them dry. Fred's question regarding RTV or another sealant on the chain tunnel area is spot on (of course) as that would be the only area I can imagine using some kind of sealant. The reason for installing head gaskets without a sealant is that the cylinder head and cylinder often have quite different expansion rates due to their construction and due to the fact that the cylinder head is exposed to much more heat. The head gasket in modern engines is often required to provide a seal between two components while accommodating slippage between the gasket and one surface. This slippage occurs because the growth (expansion) of the head can be much greater than the cylinder. The head gasket has to allow the head to slide in and out on the gasket surface as the head grows so much due to heat. If sealant is applied to a surface which is prepared to allow slippage, sealing problems will occur. My advice is to clean both surfaces to ensure that the gasket's surfaces are not compromised by deposits. Of course this goes without saying that the surfaces need to be checked to ensure that they are flat. Do not use sand paper or other abrasives to clean the head gasket surface on any head or cylinder unless you know absolutely that there is no need for slippage. If the head is to slide on the head gasket it can be seen that the head surface must be flat and smooth. This practice is very different from the old cast iron engines many of us were used to servicing. HIH Norm [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]