All, I just recently bought a new to me zero turn. It has a slight oil leak I can’t seem to fix. The valve cover seems to be the source of the leak best I can tell. The guy I bought it from says that cover doesn’t have a gasket so he tightened it down and it shouldn’t leak but it does. Is that really just a metal on metal seal? What else should I do to address this?
#2
Scrubcadet10
It's probably a RTV gasket, or Liquid gasket.
If I were you, clean the are where and around it's leaking from, verify its the valve cover then take it off, clean it up real clean., and use permatex Ultra black gasket maker on it.
As Scrubby said, to cut costs on new motors the rocker cover gasket on a lot of them is omitted in favour of the devils material SILICONE.
SO n order to make it $ 2,00 cheaper on the shop floor they have made it $ 20 dearer to be serviced because the tech now has to clean all that rubbish off or like yours it will leak.
Good news is just about every engine has a rocker cover gasket that can be used.
So do yourself a favour, clean all the rubbish off the engine & cover then fit a real gasket.
Smear axel grease thinly on the engine side and some non hardening sealant ( I Used Blue Hylomar ) on the cover side so it will strip off clean next time & can be reused.
Telling us which motor you have would be a good start.
They used to fit B & S Inteks in which case there is only one rocker cover gasket available as original , OEM or pattern everywhere.
They then went to Loncins but AFAIK they all use gskets in any case a Honda Gasket fits in there.
Post the engine number or if you can not find that post the mowrs numbers off the tag under the seat and one of the techs who has access to Toro dealernet will look up the Toro part number.
I
Don't think there is a precut rocker gasket for that Kohler.
I cut them by hand from neoprene cork sheets.
#8
ILENGINE
No rocker cover gasket for that engine. The secret is to get all the old material off of all surfaces, clean everything with alcohol to remove any oil residue and then follow the directions of whatever brand of sealant you are using to the letter. Any contamination on either surface will cause it not stick to the surfaces properly causing a leak.
I worked on a kohler that didnt have a gasket so I took the valve cover off and rubbed engine oil on the flange and placed it down on some gasket making material from autozone and traced it out and cut it. Then i coated both sides with permetex form A #2 gasket maker that is non hardening and it doesn't leak a single drop. Just make sure you clean all mating surfaces with a solvent that doesn't leave a residue. The form A you let sit a few minutes until it becomes tacky and then assemble. Its operational in 4 hours and fully cured in 24 hours.
Yep, the only way to go is to make a gasket.
Kohler used hydraulic lifters on a lot of the Commands so in theory you do not have to take the rocker cover off to do regular valve lash checks so in theory you can use silicon sealer.
The down side is it can take a mammoth amount of time to remove the old silicon & then as previously mentioned you have to really clean the surfaces or they will leak.
A gasket cut from good quality material will last longer then the mower
