Valve cover picture request.

[jrsavoie]

@jrsavoie
Have You had any more leaks with using new valve covers and gaskets ?

I never used gaskets. Just Right stuff in the little caulking gun.
I was lucky to always reuse the valve covers.they were always leaking like a sieve and all I had to do is dolly the flanges

 

[dbrannon79]

back in the day working on the old SBC engines that only used 4 bolts for the covers. we used to pien the area where the holes were up a tad so that the rest of the cover would make contact on the head first, then as you tightened up the bolts with those little spread type girdles the cover would slowly flatten making contact around the bolts last. once they were torqued to spec they were left for the sealant to cure. never really had too much of an issue with that method. almost every cover we pulled to fix a leaker, you would always see the bolt holes in the cover bent downward where the rest of the cover wasn't making enough contact to do any compressing on the gasket.

 

[MrMarty51]

back in the day working on the old SBC engines that only used 4 bolts for the covers. we used to pien the area where the holes were up a tad so that the rest of the cover would make contact on the head first, then as you tightened up the bolts with those little spread type girdles the cover would slowly flatten making contact around the bolts last. once they were torqued to spec they were left for the sealant to cure. never really had too much of an issue with that method. almost every cover we pulled to fix a leaker, you would always see the bolt holes in the cover bent downward where the rest of the cover wasn't making enough contact to do any compressing on the gasket.

Usually several tightenings would occur before the covers had to be removed again.
Been about six years ago, a friend and his old Dodge W100, 360V8 enjun, covers was leaking, he had replaced the engine with a new reman maybe 8,000 miles afore. Asked him if he had ever tried tightening them down, nope he had not. I stuck the 1/4” setup on the bolts and everyone was loose. Snugged them down nicely and has not had a leak since then.
So see, I can tighten down covers with some success.
Maybe I should have tried gaskets. It will now be new covers for sure.