However, it’s plagued with a few drawbacks, such as poor resistance to ozone, sunlight, and weather. It also has limited resistance to high temperatures and flames.

Figure 9: Items relating to oil seal characteristics

Wilmink Engine Parts offers a wide range of oil seals for various applications and engines. Poor-quality oil seals can cause problems. Our range offers only quality brands and our specialists will be happy to help you choose the right product for your application. Below, we highlight some of our brands with their catalogues around oil seals.

The seal shown in Fig. 14.2 is a relatively simple design; most automotive seals are more complex. Dust lips are often used to keep outside contaminants away from the oil lip seals; such seals thus have undercuts that make demolding more difficult. Fluoroelastomer compounds used for such undercut shapes must have reasonably high elongation at break at molding temperatures to avoid tearing the part during demolding. The metal insert is often U-shaped, and stock may be molded to form a thin layer over the outside of the insert. Since both compression and injection molding methods are used, suppliers of fluoroelastomers for shaft-seal applications often must provide different versions of the same polymer composition-medium to high viscosity for compression molding, and low to medium viscosity for injection molding. Different precompounds may be necessary to accommodate relatively long compression-molding times at low temperature and very short injection-molding times at high temperature.

In conclusion, valve cover gaskets, head gaskets, and spark plugs are essential components in automotive engines, contributing to the efficiency, performance, and reliability of the engine. Understanding the significance of these components and their proper maintenance and replacement is crucial for optimizing the performance and longevity of the engine.