Old engines love to leak oil. That is just the way it is but we can still do our best to minimize this annoying tendency. The top photo shows a valve-cover from a 1960s Ferrari that had a tendency to leak at the main gasket. Warping was suspected and sure enough, after drawing a long squiggly line all the way around the gasket surface and then carefully swiping the cam-cover across a very flat abrasive-lined table, it was obvious where the low and high areas were (center photo). The bottom photo shows the finished, newly flattened surface which will seal much better with very minimal metal removal. Modern cars use better technology, like gaskets with built-in O-ring seals, to seal mating surfaces. For this vintage Ferrari, since it’s important to keep it as original as possible, we did our best to help the old fashioned paper gaskets do their best.
