If it easily peels off after taking it apart, it's adhesive properties must be minimal when parts are assembled. Wouldn't that make it more prone to leaking?
I guess it’s a different way to skin the cat. A Chevy LS engine has a polymer oil pan gasket with no adhesive.
I suspect it works just like many rubber gaskets do. It’s not the adhesive properties that make it a sealant, but the compressibility. Squeeze it like rubber so it displaces all air between parts, and walla, you got a seal. Just a theory. Would I use it? Maybe for something that needs to come apart more often, like a valve cover gasket. But an oil pan? Something I don’t want to change ever again? No.
I've used the spray version as stand alone gaskets
What was used before RTV became a thing.
Isnt rtv also the stuff you use on valve covers to cover the spots where pieces of the engine block come together? Where there is a “seam” in the otherwise contiguous sealing surface?
RTV is an acronym for Room Temperature Vulcanizing
That was the secret to the early Japanese motorcycles. They used gaskets and RTV in areas where the cases met. Their motorcycles never leaked oil, unlike everything else.
