crank case gasket?

[Guy Wilson]

I'm putting my crank cases back together. Is Shellac sufficient alone or should I use a gasket as well? My British bike guru here says no gasket - only shellac
Many thanks
Guy

[rocker21]

no gasket needed, most people use something like a thin film of wellseal or hylomar and that is good enough. make sure you get the crank end float correct before finally doing them up.

[Guy Wilson]

Thanks! I'm working on the end float....it seems like a black art...more questions to come I'm sure...
Guy

[trevinoz]

I don't think that I would use shellac.

[rocker21]

agreed i think shellac is completely the wrong thing, a decent sealer like hylomar or wellseal is fine, shellac melts when it gets hot.

[Greybeard]

...I'm working on the end float....it seems like a black art...more questions to come I'm sure...

I bought a dial gauge with magnetic mount to do this. In the UK they have become really cheap, (Chinese made I guess). Don't forget, like I did, that the gauge will be showing metric measures rather than imperial!
I had to bolt a strip of steel across the crankcase for the magnet. At 2 minutes 36 seconds on this slideshow/video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrOfq1O-gV8 you can see what I did.

[duTch]

 

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 Assuming that 'shellac' in Guys lingo is same as ours, ie: dried beetle shells, used for staining timber (in my school days)...? And not a local product that only Guy knows about

[Guy Wilson]

Its the same stuff around the world I believe....brown and sticky made in America.. I'm on to the black art of end float now...my doesn't seem to have any..Ironically there was too much previously hence the con rod explosion...will it ever get put back together? I'm grabbing time between my full time job to put it all back together... !
Guy