Sounds ridiculous to recommend for such small bolts, but it’s worth getting a torque wrench for them. Before getting one, I erred on the side of under tightening for fear of snapping them off inside the head. The torque wrench will let you confidently lock them down properly.

 

If you have the bushings in the gaskets it is not possible to overtighten them, the valve covers stop at the bushings. You should be able to feel when the bolts get to the bushings it will get very hard to turn. I do use a layer of silicone on both side, blue loctite is good practice, silicone on bolt threads works just as good. Leak at the rear corner I assume? That should be the only spot with any oil level when running. You may want to double check you have vacuum in the crankcase at idle, stretch a latex glover over the oil fill tube while running, there should be slight suction.

 

Ah, good to know! You’re not advocating for not using a torque wrench though, just reassuring me I won’t be a dummy and snap a bolt, yeah?

 

Yes. Rear corner. Will check for vacuum. If no vacuum, then what?

Thx!

 

If no vacuum your pcv system is not working

 

Very slight suction. I do have the PCV mod and it seems to work fine. I can blow air through the barb side of the valve with little resistance. Cannot blow through the threaded side that screws into the plenum. I even drilled out the fitting on the valve cover where the original little plastic baffle used to sit. I think the PCV setup is good to go.

Both valve covers are leaking from the bottom, rear corner.

 

Ok, well then your gaskets were not seated correctly, just remove the covers, silicone both sides of the gasket, apply while wet, let sit overnight before torqueing

 

Thx!

Never thought to let them sit overnight w silicone before torquing.

 

when you apply a bead of silicone, assemble with only the lightest finger tightening so both sides of the silicone touch while wet. Doing it while wet bonds the silicone to the metal. Letting it cure overnight before torqueing lets the silicone cure and form a "body" to it so when you torque it the silicone is not liquid and does not squeeze out but rather compresses in to the surfaces, sealing them positively

 

Tried going soft and taking it a local indy shop, seeing as my garage (and house) close escrow next week. $1,200 estimate - NOT! Just finished putting it all back together. We'll see if letting the silicone set up over night did the trick.