Impossible Oil Leak?

[Captain Obvious]

On 4/18/2023 at 11:06 AM, chaseincats said:

I'll get a flat head and hammer and try to bash it out or something tonight then.  Could I just go to home depot and grab a thick oring if they have it in its stead? 

Well "hammer" and "bash" aren't the words that come to my mind... I was thinking "gently pry" with a "small screwdriver" or "pointy pick" to identify where the seams are.    But whatever works!

And since the cross section of the original isn't round, I'm not sure sticking an O-ring in there is going to work. It it were me, first thing I would do is clean the coating off the valve cover and use a flat file to dress the surface where the cap is supposed to seal. I don't know if it's a trick of the light, but in the pic you posted, that sealing surface looks to have imperfections on the one side.

Pitting or other imperfections on the valve cover? At eight and nine-oclock in your pic?  :

[chaseincats]

36 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

Well "hammer" and "bash" aren't the words that come to my mind... I was thinking "gently pry" with a "small screwdriver" or "pointy pick" to identify where the seams are.    But whatever works!

And since the cross section of the original isn't round, I'm not sure sticking an O-ring in there is going to work. It it were me, first thing I would do is clean the coating off the valve cover and use a flat file to dress the surface where the cap is supposed to seal. I don't know if it's a trick of the light, but in the pic you posted, that sealing surface looks to have imperfections on the one side.

Pitting or other imperfections on the valve cover? At eight and nine-oclock in your pic?  :

Good catch on the pitting but luckily that's just oil that had a couple of small bubbles in it from when I took the cap off (but you definitely did make me look twice haha).  Since the car got a well needed oil change tonight, and in the interest of keeping as much of that oil in the engine as possible, I came up with an interim solution which I think should work:

I grabbed some thick gasket paper and made a ring seal, placing it basically on top of the old rock hard one and being sandwiched between the oil cap and valve cover until I can find a replacement.