Leaking water jacket

[Richo97]

Hi everyone,
I’m having some issues getting my water jacket cover to seal on my 2014 Honda bf60.

Obviously new gasket seal and cleaned the surface, that didn’t work.
Tried another new gasket and used a light layer of permatex thremostat gasket maker a was still getting minor leaking.

This is what the surface looks like, is there a way I can clean it further? Maybe give a light rub with very fine wet and dry to remove any build up or corrosion? Looks like there might be some minor imperfections from previously being scratched cleaned in the past before my ownership. Definitely no major gouges or anything I can feel or notice.

What would be the best recommendation for me to get a nice water tight seal?

Regards

 

[jgmo]

Hi,

If you have access to a "real" straight edge, you might want to use it to look for any low spots or warping of the cover.

Since you seem to think someone has "been thar afore ye", it's possible that the cover was bolted back on incorrectly in the past.

Poor technique, like tightening the bolts at one end to the other instead of beginning in the center and alternately working out toward the ends in a "criss-cross" method is recommended for long, skinny things like that cover and cylinder heads.

It's also wise to tighten the fasteners in incremental stages as you go instead of simply cinching them down to the final torque setting initially. Overtorqueing and excessive heat are also big reasons things get warped.

If you determine that the surfaces are flat and mate well with each other, then, yes, I could agree that very careful clean up of the flanges might work. Very fine grit wet-dry paper...wetted... and using a light touch might work but it's easy to create low spots in aluminum. So, you must be very cautious not to linger in any one spot as you go. I wouldn't try taking pits out of the metal that way though. While that seal is intended to be used dry, If you still have leaks there are other things you can try IN MY OPINION but I won't go into that now.

Others here have often proven to be more clever than I so it might be best to see if anyone else will offer their ideas for this.

I see the old anodes and screws in the photos. Hopefully you're planning on changing those out while you're in there. I call that cheap insurance. If you leave the screws in there too long, they have a tendency to sieze and snap off when you try to remove them. Spray them with PB Blaster a couple of days before trying to back them out.

Good luck.