The valve cover gasket is already leaking after being replaced two years ago. What is a good replacement gasket that will hold up a bit longer? Febi Bilstein or OEM?

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1989 300CE

OEM obviously. Though are you sure you removed any traces of gunk sealant that somebody else might have put on before?

Also, if its from the front rather than rear, are you sure it's not one of the other gaskets?

-CTH

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- cth350@gmail.com
http://www.111lakeside.com/

The valve cover is leaking from the back of the block. It doesn't appear to be anything else but the cover gasket. Timing cover has recently been resealed and is nice and dry.

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1989 300CE

The valve cover gasket will leak at the back of the cylinder head, not the block.
The previous owner of our 300TE went spare with an oil leak at the rear of the valve cover gasket that wasn't fixed by the garage even with liquid sealant applied and two new gaskets. I fitted a new gasket and it was instantly leak tight. I did find two issues though. The gasket works best if fitted to the valve cover by starting at the rear end 'loop' and making sure it is square, as there was a small notch in ours with a matching bobble on the gasket. The other issue was that the gasket had a tendency to roll over slightly at the back and it was easy to catch on the valve gear when refitting the cover. It is still leak tight two years on. It needs to fit onto clean metal on the cylinder head too.