I remember dealing with that many years ago.
It’s really a bandaid situation in that it’s much better to do an oil pan gasket as a single unit AFTER the timing cover is in place......but that’s not in the cards at this point.
Cleanliness of the oil pan area is really important....degrease the corners really well. Install the cork piece with a little rtv where it meets the old gasket. Install the forward oil pan bolts first and tighten them down——this will pull the timing cover down to the oil pan so the bolt holes line up. Then attach the timing cover bolts.
If I was doing a BB timing cover onlyagain I think I would ditch the cork piece and use just rtv.
Thanks. Yeah, we might just suck it up and pull the pan. We actually used the front pan bolts to pull it down (cocked at an angle because of the dowels) and tapped it over the pins. Looked like it worked and everything might be sealed okay until we started her up and it began leaking in one corner. We've since pulled it apart again and saw how the holes in the cover got buggered - worse on the side that leaked. So, not wanting to go down that road again, decided to solicit tips. It was leak-free before starting the swap..
