After trolling the forums last week looking to replace valve cover gaskets, I learnt that you might be able to tighten the bolts down as they tend to loosen up. The thread I read said to check them every oil change.

I had a burnt oil smell and obvious oil leaks coming from the valve covers. Without taking off the plenum, I only tightened two bolts per side and the smell went away. I haven't washed down the engine bay yet to finalize this but will next week.

I just wanted to put this info out there as I didn't see any threads jumping out at me about this without trolling the forums for hours. Hopefully I'm not regurgitating common knowledge.

Peace Rover bitches.

 

8mm 12 point skinny sockets, yep, common malady. And when you think about it, what we are "discovering" today about old Rover repair has already been done in the scrub bush of Africa with a tire tool and a rock decades ago. Here are a couple of pages from the RAVE detailing the procedure, torque and sequence, etc. There are four bolts per side.