Oil Leaks - Controlled & Minimized

Oil leaks are hard to stop. They are often times our own doing too. Gasket sealer and other exotic newage seals of spaceage hi-temp materials like the new silicone valve cover gasket recently offered and all kinds of silicone and other gasket compounds are supposed to solve the problem. I've had my share of leaks over the years too and with many of the best sealers on the market. But I came to find out by trial and error, (and Dad's coaching), that there is a best case scenario to if not eliminate, then dramatically minimize the exterior oil flow of a leaky motor.
 
And the remedy has always been right in front of my face. But it was my Dad who said one day while I was replacing a leaky valve cover gasket of the original cork material, ...where's your torque wrench? What? I said, these leak so bad you need to sock em dowm as tight as you can. He said, no sir! Over tightening distorts the sealing surfaces; bends the valve cover mating surface and will crack or cut the gasket. He was right. I removed that brand new cork and it was cracked and distorted. The valve cover had also flared out - it spread to a point where only a small portion of sealing surface was in contact with the cork and head. I replaced that ruined unit with another new one, torqued it to spec. Guess what,  ...problem solved!

I did the same with the oil pan gasket and presto, major improvement. So the secret is like I said, in the torque spec section of any repair or workshop manual. Spec tighten all bolts and you will see a major improvement. By the way, I never use any sealer on that cork valve cover gasket either, nothing but the spec'd 24 inch-pounds (2 foot-pounds) of torque, just as the book calls for.  -de