Scraping old gasket material sucks!

I spent the afternoon scraping what was left of my base gasket of the cases. Boy that stuff is like concrete!

I also ordered a new cam chain and rollers from Z1E. Unfortunately the tensioner and some of the shaft dampeners are out of stock. Good news is I have a while before I have to have them.

there is a lovely product made by permatex called gasket remover try that it softens up old gaskets quite well it doesnt remove them completly but it will soften them up enough to be able to remove easier. you may have to repeat the process a few times but be patient, don't be tempted to use any abrasive product as you are dealing with machined alluminium instead of cast iron like automotiveheads are. if you any thing other than scrapers and gasket remover and elbowgrease, you can burn diviots into the gasket surface and trust me it will cause leaks which is what you don't want. i have seen and also attempted to use 3m roloc pads in the past and all it di was bring tears and more expense trying to get it machined flat again. sweat and elbowgrease is by far the best way.

I'll have to try that out sometime. I used a gasket scraper and a lot of patience! It took me a while, but I going slowly so that I wouldn't gouge it.

When im removing gaskets I use a scaper on all the big stuff then I use a wetstone (for sharpening knives)and keep it wet with some varsol.Just make sure your stone is flat and scrub all the little chunks off.And the permatex stuff does work good as well.

The trick is to apply it, let it set a while, then scrape off whatever comes off easy. Repeat this as many times as it takes. I had a base gasket that hadnt been off a 76 900 for 32 years and I thought it was welded on there. I destroyed 3 2x4s to get it off then did the gasket remover deal about 10 times to get it clean.

Here's a trick that really helped me. Go get an old butterknife from the kitchen. An old one that you (or your wife) won't miss. Take and grind the end down a bit so you can use it as a scraping tool. This works wonders when working small intricate areas. You still need patience, but you should be able to do a much better job. Try it, mine earned a permanent spot in my toolbox.

fordtruck wrote:

I spent the afternoon scraping what was left of my base gasket of the cases. Boy that stuff is like concrete!

That took me at least four hours on mine. Kawi factory ses some kind of permanent sealer on it.

timebomb33 wrote:

there is a lovely product made by permatex called gasket remover try that it softens up old gaskets quite well it doesnt remove them completly but it will soften them up enough to be able to remove easier.

I think that works on gasket material but not the sealer the factory used on base gaskets which is similar to 3-bond. It is NOT designed to ever be removed. It bonded the surfaces of the gasket so permanently, I could not get the cylinder to move until I was able to tear the gasket itself apart from the middle with half still glued to each surface (cylinder and crankcase). That is permanenet sealer.

Goodson Tool www.goodson.com sells a 'super scraper'. This square-cut, hard-edged scraper is the best I've found for removing old gasket material.

I found after much effort that holding a razor vertically and scraping the gasket off that way works well.

9am53 wrote:

I found after much effort that holding a razor vertically and scraping the gasket off that way works well.

Yep, that's the way I got mine off. Single sided razor. Then I use scotchbrite pad to srub the surface dead clean and wipe with acetone.

Rather scrape gasket surfaces than have an oil leak. The razor blade trick always works for me.