What is cast on the underside of the covers, four "stands" that the bolts pass through, correct?

I torqued them down pretty tight.

Why won't they seal? everything seems to be in the right place.

Suggestions on new gaskets?

John,

Are you sure you don't have anything keeping the covers from compressing the gasket? Are they the stock valve cover bolts? Are they too long for the recessed holes in the Valve Cover? Therefore feeling like they are torqued but not actually compressing the gasket all the way?
Other than that I'm at a loss too.
Those FelPro gaskets should be ok.

Maybe see if anyone at Brodix can shed some light on it for you. Maybe something special for thier heads.

Quote:

I torqued them down pretty tight.

Why won't they seal? everything seems to be in the right place.

Suggestions on new gaskets?

Could you have torqued them enough to perhaps squeeze the gasket out of place ? I read they were rubber in the summit description? Did you use some of that copper gasket spray to hold them in place? (read where you used some on the head gasket) If I use someting to hold the gasket I usually tighten enough to make decent contact and the let it sit for at least a few hours to set.

and torque it to the spec. in your manual
my .02 Good luck

IMO yes the torque on any sealing surface is important. In this case like Dan0617 said - too much tightening on the 4 bolts could tend to cause the sides to deflect.
HOWEVER I took a close look at your pictures . The gasket seems to be encased between metal on 3 sides and it appears that the gasket is a little below the 2 surfaces on the sides.
On your head I noticed bolt patterns for a standard valve cover around the seal area of the head. I would look there closely to make sure your not just torqing metal to metal with minimal gasket contact. If you had some dykem blue you could coat those areas and then put the cover on by hand and move it around a little. If the dykem is removed then there is conack there and you should see the evidence on the valve cover

For the love of Vette's, go get
a chemical fire extinguisher!
You don't put out oil fires with
water.

Quote:

For the love of Vette's, go get
a chemical fire extinguisher!
You don't put out oil fires with
water.

I know I know....Just said to my wife last week that I need to pick up a fire extinguisher for the garage. I used what I had, I'll get one this weekend.

That's exactly what went through my mind while I was holding the hose....Yes, I'm a candidate for the Darwin awards on this one.

Make sure the baffle in the valve cover isn't contacting anything. You really should be fine with those gaskets. I don't torque mine, I go as tight as i can with my fingers, then just a little more with a ratchet. After the car is warmed up I go just a little more with a ratchet and that's it. They don't need much torque at all to keep from leaking. I'm sure that either your baffle or around the edges, like you said about grinding, is hitting and keeping the gasket from sealing. Thicker gaskets may help but may not. I'd look at grinding a little off of the metal lip that holds the gasket in place if it is contacting the head rather than grinding on the head or getting thicker gaskets now that I see you don't have bolt towers that would require thicker gaskets to allow it to seal on the head.

I have been following this thread and was wondering if you got the leak fixed and what you did to fix it? did you go with the thicker gasket or was it something else?
Thanks Kevin