I'm working to finish up my head gasket job and I'm reinstalling valve cover gaskets.
The orings/seals on the bolts are toast. I'd love to just replace the orings but I'm having a hard time finding ones that are appropriate. Any suggestions??

 

Are you in the USA? There aren't o-rings on the valve cover bolts on the V8.

 

Not really o rings but on my bolts there was definitely some material that had degraded and when I look at new bolts from Atlantic British it looks like there’s kind of a seal/o ring thing there?

 

Agreed. It's not an O-ring per se, but there is some sort of rubbery material there under the head. See pic.

I suppose trying O-rings that fit would be worth a shot.

https://www.roverparts.com/engine/he...dware/ERR7371/

 

Oh wow. Wild. I’ve never seen a new valve cover bolt. Hmm. I wonder if something like Hylomar should be used in its place.

 

Could you fit a dowty washer, that a steel washer with a rubber seal on the inside used on hyrualic systems

 

I got lazy and just pulled the trigger on a new set of bolts from AB.
don’t ask me how much that cost me 😂

 

Just a wipe of silicon under the bolt head would work just as well. Or truthfully I've never used anything under the bolts, never had a leak from that specific location.

 

I wonder if they had a lil rubber on the bottom of those bolts from the factory, to help keep them from loosening up all the time. Doesn't seem like there's a need for a seal there as the valve cover gaskets takes care of that issue, but those lil bolts do vibrate out easily enough. I used a dab of blue Loctite on mine instead, I also mark the bolts with viz-torque so I can tell if they loosen up at all. So far so good, but I doubt that with a fairly coarse threaded bolt, that anything will completely stop them from loosening over time. Unless someone made a locking bolt, like they have for exhaust headers, I think these will always try to loosen up as they are to small and coarse threaded to stay put long term

 

Have at it.......