Hey joe. it is pure troll and using different user names as well.

 

this

 

for the sake of peace-of-mind tear it down to put it back together to spec. You can take a shortcut today and be fine for a while or you can do it right and not have to worry about it again.

 

But fully taking the head off just to apply silicone will cost me an instant 200 bucks to replace the head gasket... but if I just drop the cover and try it that way, I'm only wasting time, and if it doesn't work then ill just lose a little more time and the same amount of money. Id rather not ruin the gasket if possible. Plus it'll take awhile to get another gasket made.... so that's another few weeks wait again

 

I think your logic is sound, ap1tuner. I don't see any downside to your plan.

 

Keep in mind that applying sealant by removing the timing cover is not easy.

I did this on a donor motor that had a damaged timing cover. The front cover pushes onto some dowels which means any sealant you apply to the underside of the gasket just gets slid off where you really want it. You can offer the chain cover up from below, but the last 3-4mm is pushing onto the dowels so it has to be hard up on the underside of the head when you do that. The engine I did this on ended up with a slight leak in that area.

Oh, don't forget that you have to get the #(*&$ bolt off the harmonic balancer to remove the front cover.

If its not leaking at the moment I would just move onto life's next challenge.

 

I know it seems obvious, but there are several grades and formulations of silicone. Hondabond is the oil resistant kind, perma, locktite, and sil all have special versions for this application.

 

just wanted to bring this back up and mention for future reference for anyone else. i pulled the front timing cover on the engine and put the silicone where i missed it. it was really easy and didnt take long at all. the dowel pins didnt cause any issue with getting it back on or anything and best of all.... ZERO leaks! so if anyone does the same thing i did, here is the easy solution!

 

Chris barry has a point about the timing cover clearance.

On two chain jobs, one cover slipped right over the dowels with no pressure at all.

The other took considerable force. hit or miss it seems.

 

so you don't do the job twice ... do it right the first time i learned the hard way..!!