I'm loosing about 1 quart an hour of run time out of the crank case. Gasket peices are beginning to fall out in chunks.

I have 3 bolts on one side that will not stay tight, even with the red locktite.

How involved is the job of replacing the crank case gasket? I think I am going to need to stud it to get it to hold......

Think Drake1 was saying something about using studs with lock nuts, vers. bolts. sounds like something worth trying.

a quart a trip! I don't feel so bad about my oil cooler leak now! Dayum

let me know when you do it.....we can do yours first. work out all the bugs, then do mine........sounds good to me.

All bs aside I'm going to do mine in a few weeks if work stays slow so ill let you know how it goes......going with a new cam to......

I got a shop in Gilme if you want to come do yours at the same time.

Later

If ya never done it, it's probably a good half day project, but it can be done in just a few hours on a PD. In my experience, as far as bolts falling out, the critical thing is thread cleanliness, which takes some time to drain/clean everything (carb cleaner or alcohol). If you don't drain the sump cover and oil pump, when you go to put the sump cover back on, oil pours/drips all over hell and into the bolt holes which keeps the loctite from working.

Fork it. Just weld dat b*tch.

Where is Sharkey at? What the hell do he end up doin? Someone's gotta be able to figure this out

I'm about to have to do mine again too.... last time I went with Nordloc's & red loc-tite. Only put put about 80~90 hrs. since then and it's leakin again.

I know they will leak on the horizontals and verticals. Is it that the verticals just have more toque being applied to the case which will vibrate enough to loosen thse bolts up and cause a leak?
That is my assumption of why? I never taken apart a newer briggs like this before, but do that have dowel pin to relive shear force off the case bolts that secure them to the block? Is there a way to add more dowel pins?

dowel pins there already, and some have added more pins recently.... don't know if it'll do any good or not. Bottom line is it's a shitty gasket.

dont someone make heads of bolts that have holes in them so you might could wire all the bolts together . i know they have a name but cant remember what they call them.. so the bolts would not back off .. just a question .....................

I know of this company, but its a different set up. The idea is great, but id have to look and see have anything that would work for it.

I know a year or so ago, they were taking ideas on new products. They wanted people to submit ideas, who were having problems with keeping fasteners tight.

http://www.stage8.com/index.html

The main problem isn't bolts that won't stay in, it's the gasket literally getting ground down between the sump cover and the case. With the gasket thinned down between the sump and the case, it's as if the bolts are no longer tightened and they can start falling out. The shiny graphite looking coating on the gaskets grinds off really easy. More of a noticeable problem on verts, cuz the lower unit is actually mounted to the sump cover, taking alot more torque and twist than a horizontal setup, which is mounted to the block, not the sump cover. The gasket is more critical on the vert, cuz the oil is always at the gasket, whereas on the horizontal, the oil is mainly below the problem area where the gasket usually gives.

Not sure if it would help, as the problem could be from crank imbalance/rpms and not the twist thing......, but on a vert setup, if the lower unit had a stout vertical plate and the engine was mounted to it rather than the sump cover, the sump cover would just be hanging there(not load bearing in any way), rather than mounted to the lower unit, it might solve the issue or I might just be way out there.