[Verdoro 68]

Originally Posted by Mwieczorek

Looking at the pics, I wonder if his lack of success with the viton seal was caused by the oil grooved on the crank. The grooves are needed to keep the rope seal lubricated, but you do not want them there with an elastomer lip seal, so they need to be polished...

Still, the graphite rope seal looks like a good option!

Matt

Since that was posted, I had two graphtite seals fail on me. As far as I can tell, it was due to the way I packed them. I've since meticulously installed a one piece BOP - after having the crank serrations polished - and it appears to be holding well. My block has been line honed, so I had to sand down the outer diameter of the BOP to get it to fit correctly. Apparently the serrations on recent cranks are less of an issue, but given the number of times I had this thing apart, I wanted to eliminate any room for error.

Also note that the two piece I installed leaked on the stand during the "tip test" which isn't necessarily a reliable way to measure the installation success because oil can seep past the serrations according to BOP. Regardless, it felt like a gamble to run it if it was leaking on the stand.

Graphtite failure #1: https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...4&postcount=87

Graphtite failure #2: https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...&postcount=173

Success (so far) with the BOP one piece: https://forums.maxperformanceinc.com...&postcount=194

Lots of folks have good success with the Graphtite. For whatever reason, I just couldn't get it to work.

My two cents on the pistons - spend the money and get custom ones made so you can get your CR where you want it to be without having the put them in the hole or using a thicker head gasket.