Doing the replacement is the same. Asking my opinion it is a bad idea to RTV them. The o-ring seals and seals well if you do the job right. elb
Aluminum elbows.. most of you weren't around for the elbow that GM cast into the belt tension/alt bracket. Reason why they went plastic is because you'd break the timing cover if you pulled it off wrong. I feel that the aluminum ones are going to corrode and cause more issues after they've been in for years. Plastic ones distort because guys don't follow the write up that we are posting in.
I wouldn't use RTV and personally.. I also never had a plastic one blow out after the first. Once my first one distorted..I realized I had put it in with pressure on it and it showed me what doing the job poorly resulted in.
