Ken...  as an industrial maintenance mechanic who works in a shipyard near
salt water and see lots of pitted surfaces, I'd tend to agree with you here.
In that perfect world Yau-man is right, but sometimes you have to do things
the "wrong" way just so you don't have to do it twice when the right way
doesn't work.  Is Yau-man an engineer by any chance...  lol, just kiddin
Yau-man...
Bill Johnson
'85 GL Westy
'97 VFR750
'67 Bug
-----Original Message-----
From: KENWILFY@AOL.COM <KENWILFY@AOL.COM>
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Date: Saturday, January 16, 1999 10:04 AM
Subject: Re: Gasket sealer

>I have to respectfully disagree with you on this one.  In a perfect world
yes
>there would be no need of sealer when putting in o-rings.  That is thier
job
>to act as a seal.  However when installing o-rings on a older vehicle there
>could irregularities on the surfaces do to corrosion or even scratches that
>will not allow the o-ring to seal properly.  Instead of putting the whole
>waterpump back on installing the waterlines and then filling the system
only
>to have it leak because of some pitting in the block or some other cause, I
>recommend putting a thin film of the blue RTV on the o-ring.  This acts as
>cement to hold the o-ring in place while you are installing the pump (they
>fall out of that groove pretty easy otherwise) and also seals any
>irregularities that might be in the sealing surfaces.  I call this cheap
>insurance.
>Please no flames.  My asbestos suit is at the cleaners :)
>Ken Wilford
>Van-Again
>John 3:16