Upgrades and improvements for longevity

[jansens]

Hi Steve, be interesting to see how you get on. Your spreader plate is a perfect thing to be water jet cut. Just be careful with the silicone gaskets. They are very soft so when you tighten them up they will squish up a lot (and squish out). I used one on the block to head gasket and that worked fine. There is a lot of area there. But then I tried one on the top water inlet on a ruby head and found that with enough torque on the nuts to make sure the head was down the silicone was so squashed up most of it has squished out of the joint. In the end I went for a paper gasket and Hylomar.

With such a thin area for the gasket I would worry that will happen on the sump too but on the sump it is constrained by the sump and raised lip so maybe that will be fine? What are you torquing the sump nuts up to?

Simon