Valve Cover Gaskets and Half Moon Garbage

[CREGAN]

Just wondering what you all have done to get the valve cover gaskets and the bastard rear half moon to seal? I changed my gaskets last April and they have already reached the catastrophic failure point (by that I mean they are pissing a nice shiney stream of oil down the back of the engine and dripping off the crossmembers into some nice puddles on my driveway). I wrote a write up on how to do it:
http://www.delica.ca/forum/how-to-repla ... er+gaskets

So I guess what I am wondering is if I did the job as well as it should be done. Are the gaskets just always crappy? Are there any things that could be done differently to prevent only getting 8 months out of it? Opinions?

Craig

[Artacoma]

When you re do the gasket check to make sure the crankase vent is in an easy breathing sorta way , my breather hose was pinched once after fiddling around with aftermarket air filters and it made a mighty mess spewing around the cover gasket.
Also when I did mine I cleaned the mating surfaces really well and put on the lightest smear of liquid gasket to adhere everything together.
Still holding.

[Dino]

Make sure you put a good size bead of RTV silicone on the contact surfaces of the half moons. Rubber to rubber will not seal, it must be glued by the silicone. Optimally you should let it sit overnight for it to cure, but at least wait an hour and a half before running it.

[Big-Bird]

Craig:

There is a grey silicone that is oil resistant and high temp tolerant. Costs about $8 at Canadian Tire.

Pull the valve cover And the half moon gasket and wipe everything down with dry rags. Don't use solvents for this....However a little Spray 9 on a clean rag will do a great job of lifting old oil from the rubber parts.

Put a thin bead of the grey silicone on the seating surfaces of the half moon gasket and install.
Spread more across the top where the valve cover comes into contact with it and it wouldn't hurt to run a thin skin of silicone on the valve cover gasket as well all the way around.
Secure the valve cover but torque the 2 bolts in stages so that the gasket pressure is even.
Let it sit for an hour minimum to let the silicone bond and cure. Its not uncommon for small leaks to develop after 6 months as the rubber grommets at the top where the bolts are start to flex and deform. Minor retightening may be needed and should be checked at every oil change to ensure the 2 bolts are secure.