The Fun Never Ends - Valve Cover Gaskets

CV355

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In the latest round of "at least it's something simple," I went to replace leaking valve cover gaskets and warped valve covers. What I discovered was:

1) FelPro's rubber 428FE valve cover gasket is not sized right. The holes are 1/8" off from center, resulting in too much material and no way to compress it properly. I already emailed Felpro, but doing a Google search resulted in lots of other people having the same problem. I ordered a second set, which ALSO have the same issue. Nice going, Felpro!

2) The cylinder head valve cover plane does not match with the intake valve cover plane. There is upwards of a 3mm gap in one area. A flat gasket will never seal here. Even building up some sealant in this area will never result in a truly flat contact, and I'm afraid this could warp my brand new valve covers.

Any ideas on this latest round of "everything is wrong, including parts that should be correct?"
 

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CV355

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What is going on with the head on the 429?

Sent from my [mind] using the svtperformance.com mobile app

From what I’m reading, a step there is common. I guess my plan of not needing sealant is out the window.

The FE guys are saying to gob up some RTV in that area. After the time I had prying and cleaning all mating surfaces from the previous owner siliconing them in, I wanted to avoid it altogether

I guess this is proof that the heads were machined down at some point
 

CV355

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Planning on getting new Trick Flow heads and intake manifold to correct the plane issue. This will also allow me to drop the compression ratio down slightly and be safe on 93 (right now it's estimated around 11:1, pump gas + iron heads = risky).
 

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