I rtv'd everything together with permatex black. I had stock rockers so I wasn't real worried about needing to remove covers. The next one I had a set of stock valve covers I was mating to a set of 440source heads. The source heads were flat, the covers were not. I rtv'd the gaskets to the covers but not to the heads. That one worked out great. I imagine the reverse would work on the heads if they're not true.