The last 280z I bought had a cam cover leak due to stripped threads on a couple of the bolt holes. I went ahead and installed heli-coils on all of the bolt holes and now I can torque the bolts to 10 ft-lbs. And yeah, Permatex on the valve cover side works great.

Just attempted to replace the gasket...I put the sealant on the valve cover surfaces, lined up the gasket...

...and it didn't fit! It was short in overall length by about a half inch. The rear contours for the cam sprocket area were also wrong. I had to clean up the old gasket and put it back on. Disappointing, to say the least.

Did I get the wrong gasket? Is there more than one type / size of valve cover?

The block is clearly stamped 'L28'.

Anyone?

Bueller?

..little help here?

All the L24, L26 & L28 should be the same since you can swap valve covers among them all. Sounds like you got a very low quality part or it got shrunken somehow. Take it back and order one from Courtesy Nissan, MSA, Black Dragon, or just call your local Nissan dealer and order one.

Gotcha. There's a Nissan dealer close by, hopefully they won't mark it up too terribly much.

Thanks!

I haven't checked in a while but Nissan Motorsports used to offer a Valve Cover and Oil Pan Gasket. It was a compressed fiber, white in color. You could reuse it many times and it didn't need sealant. Back in the mid 80's they sold for 3x what a cork one was. I'll check with a dealer and see if they still do.