Hopefully I didn't strip it beyond repair

[Guest]

I had a horrible oil leak whenever I ran my '82 gs650 that came from the upper left part of the valve/camshaft portion. I assumed it was just from not having a proper gasket, so I decided to remove the valve plate anyways. It didn't come off easy, and I thought it was from the gasket sealant, but it turns out my dumb ass forgot to remove a screw . Anyways I dug at it with a screwdriver before I realized this, check it out in the attachment.
Can anyone suggest what I could use to seal that gap I created. Obviously a proper gasket would help right? I used metal epoxy putty the first time to try to stop the oil leak, but the oil just found a was around it.

[tkent02]

Seems to be a lot of people trying to take stuff apart without unbolting it first, but really that gasket has worked fine for 30 years, just replace it already.

[ukjules]

I "was" the king of removing things incorrectly and forgetting the bolts !
I will never make that mistake again.

That gasket - you simply must - spend a morning and remove tank, remove valve cover
then remove the old gasket on both surfaces.
Razor blade at 80degs and draw back carefully, paint thinner to soften, and a fine brass brush on an elec drill (do this at your own risk
but I did that - brass is softer than aluminium -and it cleaned my surfaces to perfection. I mean to perfection.
I then used the cheapest of gasket sets (i mean cheap) and some of my old ones and not the slightest leak)
Be careful of debris falling into the engine of course.

Do that and it cannot / should not leak ?
As someone told me on here no need for all that gung gasket. just some to hold proper paperish gasket in place.

J

[DimitriT]

And use the torque settings. Too tight doesn't work better. Paper/fiber gaskets are designed to swell by absorbing a little oil. If you over tighten them, they crush and don't function correctly.

[Chopperjake]

I'm a big fan of RealGasket - Realgaskets.com - it is a silicon gasket that you only tighten to like 1.5 inch pounds, but it's thick but soft and can cover a lot of gaps.

I bought one because I stripped out a bolt on my valve cover and even without a bolt, the cover doesn't leak.

[BigD_83]

I believe the issue might be the gap to which Ryanrod is referring is where he has pried on the valve cover, and gouged/deformed the aluminum, not just damage to the old gasket.