Gasket thickness

[tig5]

Hey guys,

I'm going to make myself a new gasket for the left hand engine cover. I was wondering what thickness gasket paper I should use, or should I literally use a cereal box? I was just using gasket goo but I've been getting a bit of leaky leaky and hoping a proper gasket might help.

Churs

[pullshocks]

I have a factory gasket on hand.  With my vernier caliper, it measures 0.5 mm thick.

[tig5]

Thanks.

Is a standard piece of cardboard in that thickness acceptable or is gasket paper fancied up in some way?

[Rikugun]

I would hope for the price it's fancied up a lot  :( The ubiquitous cereal box has probably been responsible for too many gaskets to count. I'm not sure if depending on the material it may eventually saturate and wick oil to the outside or weep a bit?

Amongst other tasty chemical additives, gasket materials are often impregnated with glue that over several heating cycles activates to aid in sealing the cover better.  Interestingly, many use grease on the gasket to defeat this feature in order to simply subsequent removal and to make the gasket reusable.

[fret not]

Gasket material is readily available at your local auto parts store and doesn't cost much.  Why not use a material made for the application?

[pullshocks]

It is not cardboard.  For the amount of work to open up the engine and cut out the gasket, I would not skimp. 

Believe it or not, the gasket is available from Yamaha.  I got mine from Partzilla (yes, they actually had it) for $7.18 plus shipping.  http://www.partzilla.com/parts/detail/yamaha/YP-11H-15451-01-00.html

Higher priced, but very worth it in my opinion is the reusable gasket sold by www.Cometic.com.  I have had the side cover on and off several times and it still seals perfectly.  Also, it does not stick to the crank case or cover, so future removals are easy.

You may already know this but pay careful attention to the area where the wires and gromets come out.

[Rick G]

When working in OR , I made every gasket for a wide variety of bikes. I did NOT use cereal boxes ! (give me a break , only if gasket paper is not available , and probably not even then!)
I made every gasket , except head gaskets . Gasket paper is not expensive and is available at any auto parts store.