leaking...f...king valve covers ???

Crazy as this may sound, try running a tap in each bolt hole. I had a valve cover leak that would not go away. Pulled the stock steel cover, checked the gasket, looked for any interference or gunk on the seating surface, etc. The only thing I had changed was installing a set of MP chrome valve cover bolts. Just thought that since I had the cover off, run a tap to chase the threads. Found 2 holes were drilled and tapped shallow. The stock bolts were okay, but the MP bolts bottomed out - and they were not much longer than the stock ones. That's all it took. Put the stock bolts back in, and the leak went away. Ended up grinding down the chrome bolts to the stock length and all is well.