Clean the hell out of the mating surfaces and silicone it.
Its the only way to do it once and once only.
And that would be why the factory always uses Silicone on their o-rings?
No, wait... Come to think of it, they don't, do they. They don't use Teflon tape either, but that's
another rant...
If you have to use Silicone on an O-ring connection to keep it from leaking, you're either not cleaning
the surfaces well enough, not using a new OE-quality O-ring of the proper size and material, not
installing it properly, or the parts are damaged and need to be replaced.
Over the years, I've seen a lot of... creative uses of O-rings and sealers, and I've seen a lot of them
leak
because of the improper use of sealers. My favorite is the transmission dipstick tube.
With every last one of these connections, as long as they weren't physically damaged, all's I've ever
had to do was properly prep the surfaces, and properly install the proper O-ring. Properly.
I have yet to see any O-ring manufacturer recommend using sealers of any kind with their products.
Kinda defeats the whole purpose of using an O-ring in the first place.
Do what you like, but if a mechanic ever did this on one of my cars, he'd be doing it over...
