VK - Oil Leak Diagnosis?

[philbio]

I have a VK Black 202 with an oil leak coming from behind the thermostat housing, it looks like there is a gasket there which has failed or moved. Can someone confirm if this is serious (cylinder head problem) and what gaskets I should be ordering? Many Thanks for any info.

[v8commy]

sure its not a leak from the rocker cover?

[NZVK308]

Yeh, it looks like oil running down the side of the block...you shouldnt have any oil leaking from the head gasket...As v8 commy said i'd be inclined to check rocker cover gasket and timing cover gasket as well

[philbio]

Thanks fellas, I couldn't see any oil getting under the rocker cover gasket, I'll revisit that. Many Thanks Phil

[philbio]

Well I can confirm that it is not coming from under the rocker cover gasket seal, could it be head gasket?

[DANNY8]

Could it be sludge out of the cooling system? As it's around the thermostat housing and waterpump, and doesn't quiet look like oil. Have gaskets even been used there or is it just the blue silicone gear? I'd go buy some more gaskets, take it all off, clean it up, use non hardening gasket goo (on both sides of the gasket) and put proper gaskets in it. Oh and make sure ya torque it all up properly. We never use to torque up the boltons, and they'd always eventually leak, even just a little bit. But since using the torque wrench on anything that can leak, it's made a huge improvement.

[BaggedVL]

exactly, its not oil, its rust and sludge :S

[ari666]

i dont know much about 6's i admit, but i am pretty sure there are no oil gallerys in the front of the head gasket. i think the first one is about 4 inches in. so it'd more likely come out the side than the front.

it just looks like rusty sludge to me too. id wager with the other guys and say the gasket is poop.

[philbio]

Thanks everyone, will redo all the gaskets on the thermostat and pump. So non hardening Aviation gasket gear is the go, not the blue silicone?

[ari666]

personally i use RTV high temp glue (orange) and throw the gasket away. but that non drying stuff works pretty good too. its just a bitch to clean later.

DONT use RTV and the gasket. though. i learned the hard way with that one. the rtv works as a lube to push out the gasket. its either one or the other with that stuff.

[DANNY8]

For the waterpump and thermostat housing I'd be using proper gaskets with the goo. The goo I use is a Loctite goo, in a small bottle from Repco, just make sure it's the non hardening one.

I normally only use the blue gear to replace cork gaskets, never tried it on the water pump and thermostat housing.