Gasket scraping ideas?

[hanz63]

I seem to hate having the top cover off Courage singles. Clean up is really a bugger. Really just about any other sump too. But these having to be so careful to keep debris out. Any tricks out there?

[bgsengine]

I seem to hate having the top cover off Courage singles. Clean up is really a bugger. Really just about any other sump too. But these having to be so careful to keep debris out. Any tricks out there?

throw em out and replace with a Briggs engine..

All kidding aside, with those bucket engines there really isnt any better option that good old-fashioned scraping - roloc pads will throw abrasive laced debris into the sump, chemical gasket removers can also get into the sump and cause corrosion , but pieces of gasket that fall in will at least not be abrasive, and usually large enough that as they break apart in the engine they get filtered out by the oil filter, as long as most of the large pieces you can get to are removed (so they dont plug up the oil pickup) , pretty much you would be left with just manual gasket scraping. If it is RTV Silicone gasket though you can often soften it up quite a bit with spray carburetor cleaner (which you can flush out with oil change)

[KE4AVB]

I have yet to be inside one these buckets to date...but patience and taking your time I have found is the best approach to removing gaskets. For most I use a backbone razor blade limiting most surface damage. Bigger scrapper always seems to cause me problems. Now I do have a couple scrapers that I keep razor sharp that I use too making there no imperfection on their scrapping edge. I do round the corners off so they have less of chance of gouging if tilt them while scraping.

It is just like applying the RTV to the valve covers of these buckets. You must remove all the oil inside both the cover and the rocker arm areas. If not the oil will cause the RTV not to setup properly and it will leak. Since I started drying up all the oil that I can, applying a Permatex surface prep and accelerator to remove the oil film, then applying the RTV following their instruction of not fully torquing the bolts for at least 30 minutes. I usually wait an hour before torquing to specs and even then I wait overnight before I start the engines so that the RTV is fully cured. I since start doing this I have no more valve covers after sealing with the RTV. Since this has working for me, I have been doing the same all the RTV applications here.

The only problem is the local auto parts store don't carry the Permatex surface prep and accelerator. I had to get mine through Amazon. Looked expensive but I just apply it to cotton swaps instead of just spraying it over the place. It is the same surface prep and accelerator that you use with Permatex thread lockers.

On going inside one these bucket engines it is looking like I am going to need get a blown engine from another shop just learn first hand about the internal workings of these.

[Luffydog]

They r a real treat. I use permatex as well. I had a rush job to do and was told to do it right then cleaned up the surface good applied to and put it back together and I told them it would leak if not waiting for it to cure. So far knock on wood hasn't been back as of yet. Rush jobs sometimes bite u where the bill fold lies.

[hanz63]

Yeah, I can go a long time before I open one up again. I've not had a governor grenade before. Help from the owner the way it looked. Fished out the old parts. Great, the infamous Kohler instruction sheet in the package. With extra parts. Instructions say, see the service manual- which doesn't show the actual assembly on the shaft. IPL shows one of that little hat things in between the gear and the big hat that they call regulating pins. Two small ones are in the package. None of the small ones are used. Kohler instructions are typically over done, not this time.
The good things about this type of job is that you don't have to pull the engine and that the aluminum is pretty hard and not easily gouged. Almost like it is a die cast. It's like the perfect gasket remover would be a narrow, semi flexible blade on an oscillating tool or something.
On valve covers, I use Right stuff with good results. Though as stated, these have to be super clean and it seems like over time- they will all leak again.