best thing to do is just use a gasket. they arent that much and when the next time you have to pull them apart it wont be a PITA like the RTV sealer will be.

lol ok i was just wondering because i thought had a lot of silicone and didnt know if there was some special reason not to use it for that

but i looked after i posted that and the tube was set up and its going to cost the same for the gaskets as it is for the silicone :P

so im getting the felpro rubber gaskets for the valve covers and felpro upper plenum set :P

You really gotta get on that rust before it's too late. Patch panel for the bedsides, and a little sheet metal around the filler door up front.

For the valve covers buy the FelPro Permadry gaskets, they have metal inserts in them that keep prevent both distorting the gasket and overtorquing its bolts.

About the lower intake - you always use gaskets between the intake and the heads, now for the front and rear walls you can use either gaskets or RTV, if the gasket set came with cork front and rear seals I prefer the RTV (gray one tho), but if it came with rubber gaskets I'd use those with some RTV on both sides to help it seal forever.

I found an engine and transmission for the Focus yesterday at the salvage yard, and did a lot of steel cutting and welding on the Firebird yesterday afternoon/evening. Plug welds are kind of fun. So is hand-shaping replacement pieces for the corner of the hood and fender supporting section of the unibody. My definition of fun may not be yours.

Just ordered the new battery for my truck. It's freakishly awesome.

Odyssey PC1750T

If I wanted a battery upgrade, I'd just throw a heavy duty marine battery in my truck like the one that was in our old Massey diesel. Not sure what's so special about this here battery, aside from the price.

Hung the passenger-side door last night: had to swap locks and actuating rods, also swapped the harnesses but cut the donor harness apart and pulled the power mirror wires off it and ran them inside my factory harness, taped up everything better than the factory ever thought of doing. Pre-drilled the new door for easy swapping of window motors in the future, sprayed it, and installed it. So now I run with a towing mirror on the driver-side, and a sport mirror on the passenger side - there seems to be something about the sport mirror tho, maybe the glass is ever so slightly convex, as I can see a whole lot more to the side than I could with the flat-glass towing mirror - which is a great thing, cause on several occasions I almost merged into someone that came flying down the other interstate so fast they remained in my blind sport the whole time.

Now I'll be off to the U-Pull-It for another door like that plus the harness and switch for the power mirrors, at $30 for the whole thing you just can't go wrong!

here's there sales pitch

Odyssey Batteries

got clutch parts from LMC.....STILL laughing over the convertable pickup from hell. wonder if that is what zombies drive?

What are the plans for that topless truck anyway, gonna be a summer driver or possibly a dune crawler?

Even at a claimed 3x lifespan, they still aren't cost effective.

I scored some fenders today for my truck @ $25 a piece, much nicer than mine haha.

Well, from a lifespan point of view maybe. But with the higher cranking power, ability to be deep cycled without damage, brass terminals, and a no spill design, they start sounding more appealing.

Also, they can sit without a charge for two years.

Eh... maybe if some competition pushes the price down to the sub-$200 range, or if I were running a ton of electrical stuff(off road lights, a system, winch, etc.), but in that case, I'd rather run dual marine batteries for the same price, or a single marine battery and an alternator upgrade for a little more up front but less in the long run.