clean both surfaces and dry them thoroughly. i like to wipe it with brake cleaner which evaporates quickly.

apply a very thin coat of rtv to both sides of the gasket. not a BEAD (which will squish out and get all over everything), just a thin smear over the entire gasket, including around the bolt holes.

also - since the bolts penetrate into the water jacket, it can possibly leak around the threads. so cover the threads in rtv too.

 

Hey I tried using the search function for this, just nothing i found related directly I actually use the search function quite often now

thanks dhvaughan. both sides, that makes sense to me now, duh. sometimes I am a bit slow. I did that to my timing cover and water pump gaskets when I put them back on.

 

Because not many , but a few do actually search. That's why 3 year old threads pop up once in a while. Those people get props from me when they do. Beside's that, most people will do a google search before even knowing about DF. And if the titles are good/related to a problem, guess what site they will be led too.