Leaderboard

When I did mine, I used a wire wheel attachment on my power drill to thoroughly clean the inside of the bumpers of any corrosion, then bought the POR15 starter kit & used the cleaner and metal prep, then applied the POR. Tape any holes in the bumper to prevent it getting on the chrome surface. After it dried, I painted over the POR with a gunmetal grey paint. Came out great.

I'm in the same camp as darom. I know you're really not supposed to need it, but if I really don't want it to leak and I don't expect to need to be in there often, I use a small amount of RTV on both sides of the gasket. Success for me is in the prep... The metal surfaces should be surgically clean and dry. Clean them with acetone about two 220 times. 221 if necessary. Very small bead of RTV on both sides. (I'm loony, but I use a syringe for application.) Assemble, but do not put into service for at least a day. In other words, I wouldn't put oil into the engine for at least 24 hours. And if wasn't summer, I would put an incandescent lamp under the pan to warm it for those 24 hours. It's a lot of steps, but I've had almost 100% success. And I've never used a cork gasket. Not that I've been actively purposely avoiding them, but I've just never had one of them show up on stuff I'm working on.