The area that's the most leak prone is where the two rubber profile gaskets butt up against each other - use lots of RTV in that area. And that's regardless of whether you use the factory metal gaskets or delete them. The other area, of course, is the very bottom of the timing case, where oil pools. One of my failed attempts included the factory gaskets and blue Hylomar. I've read about people using the factory gaskets in conjunction with RTV, also. It seems that the tensioner side is more leak prone than the other side - when I had mine open, the driver's side of the case was fairly dry, just the way the oil distributes itself, I suppose.
If you do the top cover, you'll probably need to loosen or remove the valve cover, for reassembly. You probably already know this, but you can use two of the bolts that fasten the water pump to extract it, via the threaded holes in the case. 1/4 - 1/2 turn at a time for each bolt should get the pump out without breakage, go slow. I've heard of people breaking pumps, but I've been lucky, they always come out easy. |