Hey guys,

I recently pulled a valve cover off my stock engine. The previous owner used what appears to be liquid gasket to seal the cover. I've cleaned the various surfaces, but am unsure how to remove the gasket material from the bolt holes. Some of the rubber gasket is adhering to the inner threads.

Last summer I watched an episode of Horsepower TV and those guys used some kind of bolt with threads to backout or do something to the excess material.

Any idea to the exact tool they may have used?

 

Use a 'bottoming tap' carefully, and an air hose to blow it out!
You just want to hand start it, and back off if the tap gets hard to turn - a squirt of oil might help, too!!

 

i have a needle in an air gun. you just poke it through the sealer and to the bottom of the hole and push the button. most of the time it pops it right out.

 

Neat trick! One of those football air needles would work great.

 

the needle i use would be about that size but the hole in the end is the full size of the needle. the ball needle has two little holes on each side. you could cut it off maybe. i got the needle with my air gun, it was from Lowes and had several different tips for it. if the sealer don't come out right away you just wiggle it around in the hole while blowing the air and it will still pop out.

 

Thanks for the ideas.

I don't have a bottoming tap (had to look it up to see what it was ) nor do I know the correct specs to buy one. I'm a bit afraid to attempt this as I might mess up the threads. Incidently, I think that is the tool used by Horsepower TV.

I do have an air compressor with attachments. Here's a pic of the setup I believe is suggested above. The tip on the needle is open. IMG_0441.JPG

IMG_0432.jpg IMG_0438.jpg These pics depict the rubber gasket in a valve cover hole and around a bolt.

I try and blast out any residual gasket with the air.

One more question: Does the bolt hole bottom out in the head or go thru to the block?

 

I think it bottoms out in the head. Inserting a long thin screw driver will find out for sure!

 

perfect.
the holes for the valve covers bottom out. just put the needle all the way to the bottom and blow. just watch out, i have had them come out with a lot of force and sometime grease to follow.

 

One of my best purchases in the past year has been a pancake style air compressor Thanks to the suggestions posted above another use was found for it - blasting gasket reminents from valve cover bolt holes. It worked great. Now I should be able to apply proper torque to the bolts.

Thanks for the tips. Now I'm going to go around the engine compartment blasting all loose material