Ha and those bolts have lock tight. I have the ARP bolts so not ditching those after what they cost!

Even though it may not be necessary, lock tight won't hurt anything. FWIW, that high tack was very handy. It stuck the gaskets on pretty well but didn't dry so fast you couldn't reposition them a little bit after a few minutes.

I am not a believer in RTV for this job. I only used a dab in the 4 joints where the black met the retainer/timing cover. I think that is where I went wrong last time I did the pan as I gobbed the RTV on everywhere (on the advice of a friend) and I spent so much time covering the gaskets with it, I think it had begun to set a bit. The same thing happened on my intake manifold. I find I have to have a helper to apply the RTV on the intake so I have it all done before the RTV begins to cure. Maybe I'm just that slow?

Either way I got pissed about it and paid a mechanic to replace the leaky oil pan.

The reason I had to re-do the gasket this time was **not** due to a leak. The pan was smashed by a careless body shop worker on their lift. A mechanic installed them, but I had the same Milodan gaskets on with nay a leak for over a year before this happened.