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Who carries cork gaskets nowdays?

Use a small 6" straight edge to check your valve covers and make sure they are flat where the gasket sits. You can bend them back easily enough, I've done this to quite a few for friends and never had a leak come back. VC gaskets should not need any kind of sealer on them. I've used both OE cork gaskets and a sort of rubberized cork gasket, possibly a man made synthetic cork. These both seal very nicely and still come off in one piece 3k miles later. The black rubber gaskets just plain suck. --Ryan

I use cork only also with no leaks and at 3 thousand miles it comes off in one piece everytime. I get my cork gaskits at swapmeets but I have seen them in some parts catalogs for sale too. A company called SoCalImports sales them, www.socalautoparts.com . Danny.............

Alloy valve covers will be hotter to touch but this is because the alloy draws the heat out of the engine oil this is the reason there are so many alloy engines while they feel hotter they are continually converting heat to cooler oil and engine components. This is also why we now have alloy electricity cables connecting our houses to the grid alloy works well with heat. air cooled engines work brilliantly they draw the heat out of the engine then the wind cools the alloy.

If you have a square of flat, flat stock that is about double the size of the valve covers tape a sheet of sandpaper to it. Then, you might need to lightly oil it then rotate the valve covers on it flat. Don't use a lot of pressure doing this and check every couple of "rounds" to see what kind of sanding pattern you have which might show high and low or even warped places better than checking with a straight edge.

I found this works better if you are playing with used things especially, but even new parts can have flaws due to poor construction or long storage where the temperature can change effecting the material you are checking out.

Lee