Technical Oil leak from rocker cover

[Wiltshire Chris]

I thought it was time to address the two minor leaks that my B has. They're both near the front passenger side wheel and mean I have a plastic tray permanently on the garage floor to catch the drips. There is definitely oil and coolant in the tray and I think I've identified the leaks correctly as:

1. A small coolant leak from the pipe that comes forward from the header tank and then bends back. I suspect this is just getting a bit old and perishing. I'll drain the coolant down a little and take a look at the pipe.
2. The other one that concerns me is, I suspect, a small oil leak form the front right corner of the rocker cover. I can order a new gasket from shop4parts and the manual covers the process of changing it in decent detail. The thing I'm not sure of is whether I should also use some gasket sealant as well. I've seen views that say you shouldn't need to but others that say to do so (including Paul in ). I'd rather not do the job twice so I thought I'd solicit opinion here as well as ask for sealant recommendations, I've heard Hylomar Blue mentioned and someone recommended ELRING Dirko Ht in the comments to Paul's video but I don't have any real basis to make a decision so any thoughts are welcome.

Thanks

 

[s130]

The camshaft sprocket end is a *horrible* up, round and over path to be laid by the gasket. In the video you posted a link to you can see it took several attempts to get the gasket to follow the contour nice and flat.

I would go with a sealant but most probably non setting Hylomar Blue. With non setting there is no scraping involved when replacing and with Hylomar Blue acetone will clean it all off. Less risk of scoring the metal surfaces.

Purist will say the quality gaskets should not need a sealant (unless specified by manufacturer) and they are right. However in the 'B's case this up, round and over path a real challenge. In my experience a 50/50 chance it will leak without sealant and a 90/10 it won't leak with sealant. If you are luck you may just get 100% success rate every time

 

[LeftyGreg]

When I did mine, I tried a few times to get it to seal properly and couldn’t manage it

Got some blue Hylomar and put that on, it made it much better, but, the MOT still has an advisory that there is a small oil leak. However, there is never any on the floor of my garage

Annoying definitely, but the dipstick measure is still ok 2 years on, so I am not losing any sleep over it

 

[Wiltshire Chris]

Thank you both.

Purist will say the quality gaskets should not need a sealant (unless specified by manufacturer) and they are right. However in the 'B's case this up, round and over path a real challenge. In my experience a 50/50 chance it will leak without sealant and a 90/10 it won't leak with sealant. If you are luck you may just get 100% success rate every time

I'll give it a go with those odds, hopefully it won't be worse.

However, there is never any on the floor of my garage

That's my problem, if it wasn't going on the floor I'd probably just live with it but it's just annoying me enough to have a go at it. Time to get the credit card out again...