Well it just appears to me that as often as you should adjust the tappets on a 216 it would take a lot more time to break the bond and clean the surfaces. I stick the gasket to just the head, and that allows me to remove the cover and then replace using the same gasket. The cover on mine was tightened down so much as to crush the gasket, and the rockers were dinging the cover when I got it. There was a nice bead of rtv or something like it gluing the cover down so it wouldn't leak. It was a pain in the ### getting that stuff cleaned off. Gaskets make doing repairs so much easier, things come apart without using a chisel or screw driver on parting surfaces with a hammer. If you would like, glue your entire engine together with that stuff. Its probably not going to leak but its just going to make it harder for the next guy to work on it. Gaskets in a tube have been around for a long time, with the same repeating problems.
