Home › Forum › Ask A Member › RDE-18 powerhead to exhaust plate/gaskets › Re: RDE-18 powerhead to exhaust plate/gaskets
The SS plate was used in conjunction with the oil seal as mentioned. The idea behind it was to divert as much water/exhaust as possible from getting back up into the powerhead. They tossed the idea, obviously, and went back to the carbon seal setup. The carbon seal is better, but has its faults as well. It is by no means perfect. The carbon body cracks probably 4 times out of 10. Also, the o ring in the carbon seal does not last very long due to the heating/cooling cycles it undergoes. Very rare you find one not dry rotten and cracked. I’m not a fan of them either. If you have one, I would recommend changing the o ring every 5 years or unless you have the powerhead off sooner, then change it out. Cheap insurance.
Drilling the lower pan to at least 2 inches helps ALOT. I would recommend this to anyone with a lower pan with the small 1/4" hole. You will notice a great performance improvement.