Shelf life off gasket maker ?

[lance]

Doing the 4ac engine conversion to Gismo . Installed the sump from the 3a motor to his new 4a with a new gasket
and just to make shore no leaks l applied some gasket maker as a sealent to both sides off the new gasket . That was
on Sunday at about 3 pm . Well its now Monday 11 pm and the silicone in the gasket maker hasnt gone off , it still soft.
Its Locktite Ultra copper in an unopened packet and unopened tube that ive had since ?????? .
l gess l know the answer to my to part of the question and that is to take the sump off and start again

[Tercel__jon]

Soft? or can you move it around like when its fresh?

I know its supposed to be kinda squishy...At least, thats the way I always did things and non of those waterpumps or other things have leaked. Did you read the directions? It should have a set time on there...

But i dont know anything about a shelf life for gasket maker.

Wait a second...locktight? I thought that was only used on bolts...

[Petros]

You have a new gasket, if you have it carefully and evenly torqued it should not leak. My experience with the blue silicone sealant is it gets hard when it gets old (even in the tube), the blackish goop is not supposed to get hard, it stays soft (says right on the outside of the tube). I think you will be fine.

The worst problem with pan gaskets is over-tightening the bolts, it will distort the metal pan and could crush and squeeze out the gasket. The 10 mm bolts do not need much torque, I have found that even the toque spec in the FSM is too high to get a good seal.

[takza]

I think those silicone based sealants have a shelf life...I just had to throw away a large tube of RTV due to the fact that it wouldn't set up. If you just used a thin coating on both sides...I wouldn't worry about it too much...just make sure your PCV system works OK...so you don't have a lot of crankcase pressure? The heat of running it might help it cure? Yea...if you overdo the torque you can warp the pan flange...then you'll never get it to seal.

[lance]

Yeah it hasnt set still .After a week its still like it came out of the tube. Will throw the rest away but leve the sump the way it is. Thank you all for your help . Have been every night till late out in the garage . Took a lot longer than l exspected but then l did the front end as well. Took the car for a run about 2 hours ago . Even with the front end right out of alinment, it is a different car. More power and the backlash in the tranmission is almost gone.
The car had a huge backlash in the drive train . How l fixed it l dont know but what l replaced may have done it. It has a new clutch , ball joints, steering rack and sway bar D bushs .l changed the engine mounts left to right and did notice that the engine damper had only one bolt holding on at the top.