Hello. I am doing a bunch of oil seals on the front of my S6 and just ran into a question. This is a photo of the front coolant pipe connection to the block. Its hard to see, but the new seal seems to be very slightly tapered and I’m wondering if the wider side goes toward the block or the pipe? Or…does it matter? The photo showing the squished installed gasket is the original. TIA!
FYI: ChatGPT said to put the wider portion against the block because the narrow portion is intended to move more with the pipe. Seems to make sense. I confirmed with someone on another forum that is what they had done as well. This is what I did and we will see if it leaks.
While I agree with the above, I think it is indifferent as long as you torque the bolts correctly. the seals are designed to be bidirectional.
Well for what it’s worth I don’t know that this at this point matters. Sorry for being late to the party.
From my best understanding and from what I’ve done in the past. The wider goes in the pipe as it’s supposed to be locked in and expanding up top. Chat GPT is nice but it makes up a ton of stuff just to give you the answer. That pipe is going to be bolted to the motor. That pipe isn’t going anywhere. You want the seal to dead end in the pipe not be able to move and the other side to compress when bolted tight.
The compression will then push back on the seal pushing the seal back in the pipe that will then expand under force. Once the seal has been compressed the wider part will fill out the channel in the pipe grove and since there’s no longer space for the seal to go it will push back upwards.