howdy y’all. well, this is more of a peace of mind kind of question. I’m man enough to admit my faults. today i painted my straight six valve cover and replaced the gasket. the gasket i got from o’reilly was cork, so i figured I’d use some high heat RTV along with it. i know, not my proudest moment. for what it’s worth, the previous owner had also done this (i saw the red rtv when i removed the valve cover) and i was afraid of the cork failing me in 6 months as this is my daily. anyway. I’m pretty sure i have high heat rtv in the valves lol. is this a huge issue? what are the chances it could literally screw up my engine. i didn’t use globs. but i did run it continuously along the valve cover seal. thanks guys.
maybe a better question is what should i look out for (sludge, maybe) or maybe i should replace the oil pump screen in a few months.
I wouldn't give the RTV you used a second thought. Whatever you see on the outside of your engine's sealed area is how it appears on the inside the engine. I've used all kinds of gasket sealers over the years and most times nothing at all. It has been my experience that unless there is a specific reason, and there are specific reasons a valve cover not being one of them, I don't use sealer.
If any excess RTV would go somewhere, it is likely it would travel down the oil drain holes to the oil pan. It shouldn't get past valve seals and into the valves and combustion chambers. Probably just sit in the pan and not do anything, except freak you out when you open the pan later during a rebuild. If some of it got to the oil pickup, it may get in there and jam the pump. That will bend or break the oil pump drive and that shuts off the distributor. The motor won't run, so no damage. Very remote that it would ever happen, so don't worry about it until you have to. I had chunks of old valve seal do that to me ... Twice. This is on a V8. The factory oil pickup has some kind of bypass feature in case the oil gets a lot of sludge. The second time this tripped me up, I got a Mellings oil pump. The pickup has a full screen on the opening (no bypass ability). Nothing can get in that one again. I would look to see if they have that kind of pump available for your six if you ever need to have the oil pan off.
Nope I had a friend that burned up a 289 when stem seals got into pump and it twisted off shaft(looked like a barber pole) . Distributor drives oil pump shaft, not other way around. Was a common issue in '60s & '70s. Comparing cooked out, rock hard, valve stem seals to RTV is like comparing bubble gum to jaw breaker. RTV in pump will be chewed up and hopefully caught by filter. I say hopefully, when filter is full of crud or oil pressure is over 70-80 psi, bypass in filter allows oil to flow around element.
I defer to your experience Sir. Thanks. It probably would squash RTV. I did have my motor completely stop running when it sucked up the valve stem pieces, both times, same way, medium acceleration from a stop. Didn't make it to the other side of the intersection running. Maybe it was just that millisecond of jamming everything just before pretzeling the oil pump drive that stalled the motor. The second time it happened ... "not this again !?!". before it ever coasted to a stop.
At low RPM, I'd say that's possible... My friend was zinging down the highway, probably 25 mi from home. The 289 made it over ½ way back before the rod bolts started melting. Paint on oil pan was burned off to oil level in pan. Needless to say, it was a goner.
