How NOT to remove an old gasket

[bevans6]

I use an old wood chisel, I grind a slightly rounded face with no sharp corners and I carve off the old gasket, just like it was wood.  Right down to the metal, then I use scrapers that I sharpen with a hook edge.  If there is no possibility of contamination, then I pull out the power tools...

Brian

[belfert]

My other question where the brass wire wheel was suggested was to remove the leftover residue from the seal rings.  I did use a brass wheel in my Dremel on the seal ring residue, but the Dremel brass wheel wore so fast there was no way it would help on the gasket.

I started with a gasket scraper, but it was going to take all day.  I had to go over to my friend's house anyhow so I took the part with me to ask him about it since he is a mechanic.  He said I take them off with a sanding disk and he did it.  It only took a few minutes.  Neither he nor I thought about debris getting inside the oil portion because the holes were on the bottom.  In hindsight a couple of pieces of tape would stopped any debris from getting in the holes.  I'm not blaming my friend because I didn't notice the issue either.

Money is not the reason for the cheap temporary soundproofing.  I have no idea exactly how I am going to finish that area.  I don't want to do a bunch of permanent work only to rip it all out later.

[chev49]

I have used old bondo narrow - 1inch - for a scraper on aluminum. They come in several widths probably from an auto parts house. I buy my paint supplies from industrial fininshes - the commercial vehicle paint store. Credit card stuff doesnt have a handle like they do.

As far as making mistakes... that is what i try the first 3 times before i figure out what is wrong...

[pabusnut]

I sometimes do dumb stuff right off the bat, because I think it is a no-brainer, which normally means I thought it was so simple that I thought no more about it.  This normally gets me into trouble.  I mean what I thought was a fast effective way to do something now requires 3 hours of cleanup afterwards!  If I waste more time thinking, I end up saving time overall by not having to fix(or clean) whatever afterwards.  So from that aspect, I can see where Brian got himself into it.  When you're dumb(like me sometimes)--You gotta be tough.  Brian did help us by reporting back, so we can learn from his mistake--at his expense.

"They" say time is money, but sometimes money is time.  Convenience costs.  We could probably do everything ourselves on our bus conversions, but if we don't "hire some stuff out" we would never get finished.  Since I am not restoring my bus, there are many original bus stuff parts that are now in the county landfill that I chose not to restore.  Sometimes I spend more than I need to--in order to keep the "original" bus look. 

When I need help, I ask the group and consider their advise, and carefully consider that collective wisdom before making my decision on what to do.  I do consider the wealth of experience and knowledge on this and other boards extremely valuable.  The action I take may still be different that the advice given, but will be one factor of many which normally include time and money, convenience and style.

Bottom line is each of us is "doing it our way" and our project will be a reflection of it's owner/builder. 

Some of us need to keep our dents and scratches in our fenders to remind us what is important in life. 

Steve Toomey
PAbusnut

[artvonne]

  After some time around aircraft and exotic cars, I found you cant clean an oil cooler with standard shop practises. They really need to be sent out to a shop that specialises. You "think" running some solvent through will do it, but really all you do is loosen everything up and either destroy an engine or start clogging filters. On a $10-30K engine its just not worth screwing around. Either leave it alone or do it right.

  You also should never wire brush off a gasket, it usually ends up damaging the gasket surface, or in this case clogging up the cooler. Wood chisles, plastic chisles, or carefully with a razor/steep scraper.

  As to the other side, I an understand frustration with certain situations, but hopefully we can all find a way to have patience with one another.

[luvrbus]

Most oil coolers are magnetic to clean one the shop has to have the means to demagnetize the screens it done everyday I do it with a torch my self a flame will demagnetize one

good luck

[JohnEd]

I had to remove the oil cooler housing and core from my engine to fix an oil leak.  The gasket was stuck on the oil cooler core.  I asked my mechanic friend how to remove the gasket and he removed the gasket for me with a sanding disk in a die grinder.

The problem is I discovered later that bits of gasket and sanding grit got up inside the oil cooler.  I took the core over to a heavy truck garage to see if they could flush out the core and the mechanic said it needed to be replaced, or I would risk a $10,000 rebuild.  It cost me $200 to get a new oil cooler core.  I could have got one cheaper by ordering, but I wanted to get it back together yesterday.

Brian,

This, like many of your posts, is a valuable "lessons learned" post.  Thank you for sharing this. It might save someone the cost of an overhaul one day.  We all profit from your being candid about your experience and history.  While you have on numerous occasions chosen to do your project at variance to some of the advice here, I have never felt that you disdained that advice or a member.

Please continue to hold the common good as your priority and risk criticism. 

Thank you,

John

[babell2]

I think we can all take this and put it in a lessons learned been there done that category.  Listen to those of us that have tried short cuts or the "Easy Way" and have learned by the experience.  Learn from others mistakes not you own and you are a large leg up from someone starting out on their own.

Brice

Brian Thanks for the info.

[gus]

Any kind of wire wheel would not be a good idea in this case simply because the little wires fly off the wheel and go in all directions (Into the cooler!!). At least brass will probably do no serious damage.

[Charles in SC]

I have found that there is a spray gasket remover that works good. I get it at Auto Zone.

[happycamperbrat]

Thanks for the lessons and tips on this thread! Im sorry about your loss Brian. If it helps any, I have a guy friend who often comes and helps me on projects. Many times though I know Im in over my head and being a friend, he steps in to do the job. But about 50% of the time I find out "after" the job is done that he didnt know what he was doing either and now I have to do a lot of research and fix the original and new problems myself. Sigh, it is called learning. Be glad you dont pay your friend like I do mine.