PonyKiller87

I recently bought on of the TA performance aluminum diff covers and after thinking about it I really want to make the cover seal to the diff with an o-ring. How do you correctly size the groove so that the o-ring compresses right and seals well?

Apeiron

You'd have to mill it out. Why bother when RTV will seal it just fine?

PonyKiller87

The o-rings just seem like a cleaner setup to me, and Im one of those people that change all the fluids once a year so Im getting tired of scraping RTV off. I know to alot of people there isnt much benefit for the amount of work, but for me its worth it.


I figured out a way to do it with my dremel tool, I just need to know how to size the groove properly.

firebirdjosh

iTrader: (1)

Get a drain plug instead. Dremeling sounds like alot of work for a worse seal.

305TA85

A dremel tool will not give the consistancy that a o-ring groove requires. There are a few preliminary thoughts. Number one is the a place where a .139" groove can be made into a circle the entire way along the housing. Obvousilly it needs to be betweenthe bolt holes and the inside of the housing. You need to find yourself a parker o-ring book and use the proper formulas for a face sealing groove. You will need to use a mill or I fear that your groove will not seal.
I do not know if you will be able to use a standard o-ing groove, so you would need to find the centerline length of an o-ring, and find one that you can put in.
Good Luck,
Greg

86camaro383

iTrader: (3)

why not just use a gasket or RTV with a weld in drain plug?

spartyon

The TA cover should already have a drain plug in it. Mine did.

305TA85

It would make more sense to get a nice aluminum pan that has enough depth to put a o-ring groove in. Its about a better sealing solution for the spectators.

Vader

You can get O ring (or quad ring) material in bulk from various suppliers to make your own. Permatex/LocTite even used to offer kits to make your own custom O rings, and may still have them. The material supplied with the kits was in small spools. However, the material is available through many better stocked power transmission suppliers, like Motion Idustries or HeadCo.

Lay in a length of material and bond the splice at the top so there is no chance of a leak. The adhesive provided with the kits used to be a plain cyanoacrylate ("super glue") product.

Determine which material you will use, then size the groove accordingly. For a regular O ring, if you provide a groove about 20% wider than the diameter of the ring material, then cut the depth of the groove 70% of the diameter of the ring material, you should achieve adequate crush on the ring to seal well.

84z28350

Yes Loctite/Permatex still sells their o-ring splicing kits (P#00112)

I think your alot better off finding a PT shop and buying a couple foot of bulk oring material and a bottle of Loctite/Permatex o-ring glue (P#46551)

The kits are fairly expensive, not worth it especially when you only need one size of material and not much of it!

The bulk o-ring material is dirt cheap but the price of the glue will surprise you for the size of the bottle lol

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

how about a flat rubber gasket similar to a valvecover gasket? it wouldn't require milling or scraping.

iansane

iTrader: (1)

Or get friendly with Roloc discs.

Air_Adam

better yet, make a rubber gasket, much like they do for the 'reusable' valve cover gaskets. Just get a sheet of the stuff and cut-to-fit. You use a thin steel tube as a 'punch' to cut out the bolt holes.

JeremyNYR

iTrader: (2)

exactly what I said 2 posts above

Gramps

iTrader: (1)

making an O-ring groove is very difficuly without machinery. you'd probably want the O-ring to recess into the diff instead of the cover anyways. and for an O-ring to work on that size, you probably need a 6mm ring, which means your groove needs to be slightly wider than that, and slightly shallow depth of 6mm. its very difficult to put an O-ring groove in a place like the diff. if your really worried about it, skip the RTV silicone, and go for a 1/32" or thinner oil-resistant gasket material and cut one out custom.

PS: i like the nit-picky way you think though, i like ppl who's only goal is to please pesants.

PonyKiller87

wow, I completely lost track of this thread, but its good to see that it finaly got to some people that were willing to answer my question and not just tell me to do something else. Thanks.

Gramps, how do you determine what size o-ring to use? Is it based on the torque of the bolts, or the overall length of the o-ring ??


Haven't dont this yet but Im still planning on it. And I will most likely end up having it done by a machinist instead of doing it with my dremel.


As far as the suggestion of the flat rubber gasket, would that work? I though something as big as a diff cover would have problems sealing with something like that?