The question is, to goop or not? Given that there are two gaskets, meaning four sealing surfaces, do we normally lay on the silicone or simply let the gaskets work their magic on their own? Just a query.

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Me, I use my trusty spray can of Copper Cote (or whichever other brand of copper spray gasket dressing I have on hand). It requires moving the plate/pump gasket clear of the pump/plate at one end, spraying, letting dry, then pulling the gasket the other way to expose the unsprayed area, spraying, letting dry, then rotating this gasket into proper position.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Record response time Dan!!

Is the spray sealant like a contact cement where you want to let it tack over on both sides before you connect the two, or just like any sealant? I only ask because I never use spray sealant, just ultra copper or black.

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Unless surfaces are pitted/corroded there is really no need for sealant on this type of gasket. If they are pitted, clear silicon allowed to dry works as well as anything else, and costs less.

sb

For paper gaskets like these I use the brown aviation Permatex in a bottle with the brush under the cap. If the block and water pump surfaces are in good shape you don't really need anything on the gaskets.

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Joshua

Most of the time I put them on dry. If the steel plate is pitted I will put some shellac on the gasket.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Not to sound like a drone, as I've replaced at least a half-dozen water pumps on Mopars over the past 35 years, but my curiosity has gotten the best of me...

I've never seen two gaskets provided with a water pump. What's up with that?

The slant water pump has a plate that is sandwiched between the pump and block so you need two gaskets.

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Joshua

One goes between the pump body and the steel divider plate. The other goes between the plate and the block.

The advantage of copper gasket spray vs. "aviation" gasket compound, gasket shellac, etc. is that long in the future when it's time to replace the pump again, if you used the copper stuff you can remove the pump by hand. If you used shellac, it'll take a nuclear bomb or at least a sledgehammer. Nevertheless, gasket shellac does have its uses, see my post here.

The copper stuff contains fine copper powder in a sprayable binder compound (it's also available in a brush-top can). It improves questionable or problematic sealing in paper/composition gasket applications (it's not meant for use on rubber gaskets) without making a mess. This stuff also improves heat transfer — sometimes this is good and sometimes it's irrelevant, but it's never bad — and acts as an anti-seize so that junctions thus sprayed are easy to disassemble. I find it also helps prevent laminated paper/composition gaskets from "cooking" to one or both surfaces. I just this morning replaced an EGR valve gasket in my truck (the bolts had loosened up) and was pleased to find I had copper-coted the gasket when I installed it some years back. It lifted right off and there was only a tiny bit of frass left on the mounting surfaces, which scraped off easily and cleanly; took me about 30 seconds. Contrast this with when I first installed this EGR valve at the time I installed the gasket I removed today. The old valve had been installed with a dry gasket, no dressing of any kind, which had baked onto the manifold so hard it took me an hour and forty-five minutes of scraping with several brand-new heavy-duty single-edge blades to get all the frass off the intake flange. And that was after repeatedly soaking down the flange with carb cleaner.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I'm sold, clearly you will be getting a commission off of this $9.97.00 sale Dan. Otherwise I would complain to your superiors (like you have any)

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