I learned THIS today....

My 2007 Ram 1500 5.7 had a valve cover leak on the drivers side so I replaced the gasket with a Fel Pro set. The factory gasket design is excellent in these engines.....a recess in the plastic/composite valve cover allows a "rope type" rubber gasket to lay in the groove and stay in place, as opposed to the LA and B/RB setups that allowed the gasket to squish out and leak like there wasn't even a gasket in there.
The Fel Pro gasket didn't fit well. It was as if it had been stretched and didn't want to compress and fit tight.
Yeah, it leaked. It was worse than it was with the original 390,000 mile gasket in place.
I thought maybe the valve cover had a crack in it so today I went to a junkyard/wrecking yard to look for a replacement valve cover.
I saw a 2003 Dodge truck...with cast aluminum valve covers. Hey....these look great!
I thought about replacing both side covers with these aluminum parts but with what I have seen in the past, sometimes there are subtle differences that make a swap much more difficult than it should be.
It turns out that the aluminum covers have a different placement of the coil pack mounting bosses. If I were to install these, the coil packs in the truck wouldn't have worked.
Cheers....

The gaskets on modern vehicles are sooo much nicer than the old junk. There isn't a gasket one on an LA engine that would have gone 390K lol.

I agree.
I don't know where credit is due but the LA to Magnum evolution started a trend toward much better oil retention with the additional valve cover bolts and thicker metal on the covers themselves.
The wife had a 93 Civic that had a 1.5 4 cylinder with a similar oil pan gasket design....a recess in the pan allowed another rope style gasket. This style seems better for long term durability than any variation of a paper gasket.

When I install new gaskets in them I glue about 8 different globs of "right stuff" to hold it in place when I flip it upside down to install, works great for me. Don't let it dry before installing it, just use it as sort of a temporary adhesive just to hold it in the groove. Oh and factory gaskets fit better than the felpro but once the felpro is in it works just fine.

Fel Pro has been my "Go-To" for everything but this set S-U-C-K-S !
The one I tried was too big and had to be squished in to fit the groove and as a result, sealed worse than the original one.
This replacement valve cover with original gaskets sealed up just fine.

Same issue here- 3 sets to make one good pair. Parts counter wasn't thrilled......

Thanks for this info, will definitely keep in mind.

Felpro was always my go-to also but not so much lately. I think maybe they like so many others MIGHT have moved production to over seas

I know for headers Remflex is the best. I don't know who to turn to for engine sealing in older stuff now but OEM will be my choice for my 5.7.

I usually try to go factory for late model parts but sometimes the price difference is dumb. I put a thermostat in my wife's 15 Grand Cherokee with the 3.6 this weekend. Dealer was like $70 and duralast was like $20 haha. I did go with factory coolant. Nice O-ring gasket and a bleeder built into the housing made it a quick and easy job. I only had to use a very small amount of that $28 coolant jug I bought haha.

Bosch oxygen sensors at the Honda dealer were over double what I paid at the NAPA store. The part at the dealer was in the same box with almost the same part number, just a couple more numbers at the end.
The Dodge dealer wanted some stupid $250+ price for a water pump for my 5.7....O'Rielly had a few for under $100.
I know, sometimes nothing compares to OEM but many times, the dealer is a butt slammer experience.
In 1984 I worked at a Chevy dealer and wanted to tune up my Camaro. AC Delco spark plugs were $3 each even with my employee discount. The exact same plug was 99 cents at the auto parts store.

I can usually find late model Mopar Parts online at competitive price and MUCH less than dealership. Steve White Motors has good prices online.

My local dodge dealer gives me wholesale prices and a lot of times I am surprised how cheap they are, it wasn't long ago I could buy a new 6.4 SRT8 cam for $68 !!!! I swapped a lot of 5.7s once I decided they would work. Now unfortunately they are 3 times as much butt still cheaper than any decent comparable aftermarket cam especially considering you don't need to delete MDS or put in a limiter or lock or even tune it (they are even better with a tune but still nice without one). Factory head gaskets are barely more money than felpro from the parts stores.

Mopar parts direct .com has been a life saver for me the last several years. OEM parts at parts store prices or better. Also, was very surprised on how extremely limited the selection is for SRT vehicles, and the 6.4 when it comes to the chain stores. If you have a repair that can wait a few days and want exact fit and type parts the car was usually born with, give it a try.

It is not the dealer its the company the dealer works for/under.. Believe me I know. The dealer is already boned by the company's marketing strategy. So do not always blame the dealer as he has to work of of an already overinflated mark up.

Okay....Blaming the dealer is convenient because they are the vendor that gets the money IF I'm dumb enough to pay more.
No matter what happens behind the scenes, they are the "face" of a business that sticks it to their customers.