Hi, all

I've noticed what I thought was an oil leak coming from near the rear bottom left corner of the head.
It looked and felt like oil, and had coated a small area of the block below there.

I started looking with a mirror under the intake manifold and injection metering valve(or what ever it's technically called) for the source of the leak.
What I found was actually a blown intake gasket. Part of the gasket was still hanging down from the rest. So I guess what appeared to be oil was the remains of evaporated gas since the time it failed.

I put this gasket (Mercedes gasket) on there about 3 years ago. Both the head and the intake surface were flat with no distortions. Manifold was torqued to spec when installed, but I never went back to re torque because of the bolts being so hard to get to. I didn't coat the gasket with any type of sealer.

So, first of all..
Is there a better gasket available? The Mercedes gasket is a fiber type non metal reinforced material and is relatively thin.

Could I omit the gasket and just use the proper sealer between the two surfaces?

Thanks,
BMJR