Removing Stubborn Gasket Material

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PogoInTheWoods

PogoInTheWoods

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What to use? I have a coupla case halves with the gasket equally baked onto each half. Razor blade won't sneak underneath to peel it off like usual and scraping with a razor blade doesn't touch it, either. I'm currently reluctant to use a more aggressive/abrasive approach that may gouge the surface. Tried a scotchbrite pad, brass brush, fingernail polish remover (non-acetone) to soften it up, still no joy. Read a few threads about the subject and never did run across anything conclusive or generally agreed upon by the masses as a safe and effective method. FWIW, I do use Dirko as a thin film of sealant on case gaskets and when deleting base gaskets. Good stuff and effective for me so far.

Any proven suggestions/solutions gratefully accepted.
 
I try to carefully scrape close to the metal then use a large flat carborundum honing stone with some diesel/kerosene to take it to the metal. Leaves the surface flat and shiny with just a bit of texture that takes the new gasket nicely.

If you make the scraper out of copper less chance of gouging the case.
 
Gypo Logger said:
Maybe a liberal soaking of diesel may persuade it the come off.
Click to expand...

I also find that when i soak cases in kero the gaskets basicly fall off. Gasket remover spray does work but its very dangerous, it will eat your skin and everything else. Scraping is a delicate matter. Easy to scrape into the magnesium and gouge it. My friend an auto mechanic takes a razor at a 90 deg angle and scrapes the gaskets like that. I like the kero soak, maybe finish with a little razorblade scraping and then the using a circular motion the finest sandpaper on a glass surface to keep the plane absolutely flat. I always use high tack on reasembly.
 
There are 'roloc' disks by 3M for your die grinder, they have plastic fingers with an embedded abrasive,.. work AWESOME for removing gaskets, paint, etc, and you'd have to be REALLY careless to bugger anything up.. they last a LONG time as well... I've had mine for years and taken a lot of gaskets off, they really clean up head gasket surfaces, etc to a like new finish and won't eat any significant amount of metal, even soft metals.. they also are impossible to clog
 
Thanks for all the responses, fellas. A bunch o' good tips. Already went the soak route in the parts washer for two days with no luck. That's when I started getting frustrated. That 3M attachment looks very cool and I may have read about it somewhere else as well. I presume it needs a Roloc mandrel for use in a die grinder? Does it come in any other variations for use in a standard drill or maybe even in a micro version for use in a Dremel? That'd be way cool. If not, any chance the Roloc version may be available at Advance or maybe O'Reilly's?
 
Roloc mandrels are cheap if you get aftermarket ones... if Advance or Oreilly's stocks 3M products they should be able to order it in.. You can use it in a drill if you like, a 1/4 or 3/8th drill that has 2000+ RPM should work fine, just a little slower than a die grinder, haven't seen them for dremels though
 
when we powder cases and tanks the blast cabinet works wonders get the old gaskets off

got too be careful but it works !

if you bake the case halve at around 250 for a half hr the gasket come off easer too
 
Small wire brush always worked for me. Scratches wont hurt the gasket area a bit, actually I prefer a little coarse surface there when using loctite for reassembly.
 
put heavy amount of dawn in hot water,,, dont make it bubble up just stir it enough to mix it,,,, set the case halves in the water and let soak for an hour or so,, they should come off real easy
 
PogoInTheWoods said:
What to use? I have a coupla case halves with the gasket equally baked onto each half. Razor blade won't sneak underneath to peel it off like usual and scraping with a razor blade doesn't touch it, either. I'm currently reluctant to use a more aggressive/abrasive approach that may gouge the surface. Tried a scotchbrite pad, brass brush, fingernail polish remover (non-acetone) to soften it up, still no joy. Read a few threads about the subject and never did run across anything conclusive or generally agreed upon by the masses as a safe and effective method. FWIW, I do use Dirko as a thin film of sealant on case gaskets and when deleting base gaskets. Good stuff and effective for me so far.

Any proven suggestions/solutions gratefully accepted.
Click to expand...
In tough situations like this, I have found that a heat gun works very well. Heat the gasket and scrape with thin sharp paint scraper.
You have to realize that gasket material is designed to not absorb liquid, or at least very little. That makes soaking mostly ineffective.
 
I used old broken or dull 1" or 1 1/4" wide power hacksaw blades. I grind off the teeth, round the corners on the end with the hole, and sharpen the other end. They are high speed steel. Not soft like a putty knife. When I say sharpen, I mean I make a nice hollow grind that takes up about 1/4" of the blade. Then I clean up the edge with a stone so it is perfectly flat on the bottom with nothing to make scratches on the surface I'm scraping. It ends up about as sharp as a new utility knife blade, only much stronger and useful as a scraper. When I nick something hard and damage the edge, I sharpen it again. I wear out about 1 blade a year I sharpen it so often, but the time I save, and the quality job it does is worth it. I used to have a job where we used one of these antique cut off saws, and I saved a lot of them before we got something more modern. The blades are still available online. Cheaper and better than any gasket scraper you can buy.
 

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