I wanted to make sure this is ok before I go ahead with it: I drilled the hole too big for the kettle valve, so to combat the leaking I put a washer on the kettle valve and i put a bigger high temp silicone gasket on the other side of the washer to prevent leaks. now obviously I would have the boiling wort coming in contact with the high temp silicone because the hole is a little too big. is this ok? or do i need to buy a bigger kettle valve. This seems to me like a newbie question but i really want to make sure of everything
You are fine. There are “no weld” kits that have silicone orings to seal boil pots.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/cata ... ?q=no+weld