Need suggestions for valve cover leaks.

[RyanL]

I'm at wits end trying to get my passenger's side valve cover to quit leaking. I've had both valve covers off numerous times for adjusting the valve lash and it seems like each time I try something different. I've straightened them out, tried using rubber gaskets, rubber gaskets with gasket maker, and finally no gasket- just gasket maker (tried different colors of the damn rainbow too). I even cleaned both surfaces with rubbing alcohol since parts cleaner seems to leave a little bit of residue. Is there any trick to stopping the leak because where it mostly leaks is toward the firewall and it makes a mess not to mention a ton of smoke when it hits the exhaust. It even runs down the front end onto the passenger side front brakes. And yes, from what I can tell the PCV valve is working right - I can hear the little ball rattle when I shake it and it sucks my finger in when I take it off with the vehicle running. Is there something that I'm missing? I had an old Jeep with a 4.2 and a 2 foot long valve cover years ago and those were notorious for valve cover leaks, but even that didn't leak this bad. Are there aftermarket valve covers that work for the 2.9? I couldn't find any for the 2.9, but maybe 4.0 ones fit? All I know is that I'm sick of messing with it.

EDIT: I think that I may have figured out what the issue is with mine - I think that I have the wrong damn valve covers! Okay, so 5 or 6 years back when I purchased the thing, I discovered that it had cracked heads (bought the thing dirt cheap and knew that it had major problems going in, but was hoping for just a blown head gasket or something). Anyway, I swapped in beefier aftermarket heads which I think require different valve covers or at least in my scenario. Even though mine is a '89, it seems as though it had the older style heads on it (who knows, maybe mine didn't get the newer ones from the factory which '89s should've had or maybe even the motor had been replaced by an older one at some point). This is discussed briefly in the 2.9 tech library. I always wondered why the valve covers really didn't match up too well to the aftermarket heads; I figured they were just poorly designed (I've found many aftermarket parts to not "match up" in the past), but now I know what's up. Sorry for the long rant. Anyone have any extra valve covers?

 

[RyanL]

Bump. Anyone know where I could grab some? I checked a couple of local places and one place only had the left side ($40) and the other place didn't have any. I'm a little afraid of ordering them from www.car-part.com for the simple fact that they might not be the right ones for whatever reason. I tried a handful of places online like jcwhitney, summit, James Duff, etc, but no luck.