It had a rubber gasket in it, covered with RTV, before I tried to fix the leak I had then. So I bought a Felpro rubber gasket, and it appeared to be about an 1/8 inch too long, and nothing would line up right. So I decided to put back the org. gasket, I noticed the pitting in the head (I've been doing this around 9:00pm every night, and last night was the first time I had a decent light to see what I was doing). Well, we used some RTV on the head to try to fill the pitting and give me a smooth surface. After driving it around today, everything is sealed, except for one little part. Thanks for the info on the feeler guage test Rich, I'll have to try that again this weekend. Do they make a steel valve cover for the 2.5L? I really don't like the fact that the stock one is plastic.