Hi there I'm planning on doing my drivers side rocker gaskets on Saturday , 8x bolt gaskets, 2 plug gaskets, oil separator gasket n rocker cover gasket, now I'm getting conflicting advise , my mechanic I use for bigger jobs says you only need gasket sealer for caulk gaskets not rubber and all the threads I read on here say use a gasket sealant, if it is necasery what is the method in doing this , any advise much appreciated

 

I can only go by what I have done in the past, I used a small smear on both faces and they never leaked.....thats not to say that not using sealant would've made them leak but hey ho!

 

I put sealer only on the cover side groove and a slight smear across the half moons and all is well. Mine hadn't been done since factory and you could see where the original sealer had been put on the old gasket.
But I would think it would be fine to use no sealer on cover groove and it would still be fine. I only did it as it holds the gasket in place quite well.
Also be very very careful not too over tighten bolts as they are shouldered and I snapped one then had too pay someone to get the bolt out.you've been warned. Ha ha. Good luck.

 

Also what happens is tilt when you take drivers side cover off oil left in cover goes all down the exhaust and sits in the exhaust heat shield so when you go back to driving the car it smokes like a biatch and you think its still leaking so my advise would be to remove the heat shield and clean the exhaust after you have done as the smoke on mine was quite bad. But up to you.

 

I always use a small smear of wellseal for anything sealing oil and blue hylomar for water sealing gaskets.

 

Cheers guys I smeared the whole gasket very lightly, took me an hour or so and a couple layers of skin from my nuckles lol , got to burn so excess spillage off then hopefully all good