[cortcomp]

I had raised this issue here several months ago when my 327 was at the builders, he couldn't get the milodon (too thick) or felpro (slightly too thick) thick gaskets to work with my new, thick gasket oil pan, non-chrome, from summit.

I had inquired to be sure, and it was determined that the timing covers are the same (seal wise, not timing pointer wise) regardless of year, it's the depth of the U in the front of the oil pan that changed. My builder didn't like that he had to use slightly longer bolts to "pull" the pan down tight, then switch to two shorter bolts. He was checking the thickness of the gaskets with a micrometer (precise guy) and was mad that the factory gasket was like .400 and the felpro .5 and the milodon like .575. I told him, it's a gasket, suck it down, if it doesn't pinch or cut we'll run it. About 500-600 miles so far, no leaks. Didn't use OEM timing cover because someone notched it during a rebuild or freshen up as mentioned, used a summit cover, with chrome stripped off, and my timing pointer from the OEM cover tacked on, and painted.

We measured several different timing covers from several different mfrs, some oem ones, etc. Only one (a cast iron one from "mdiwest motorsports" from the 70's or 80's) was any different, regardless if it's OEM year.

So, to reiterate, and maybe i'm wrong, but after a flury of measuring and research, it's the pan that determines the thick/thin gasket, not the timing cover, should be no differences but the pointer. (And the seal grove thing is spot welded on aftermarket covers, it's welded on the whole seam on OEM ones, so seal the cover between the spotwelds so oil doesn't seep between them.)