Slight Oil Leak

My vehicli is 1996 Alfa Romeo 146 ti 2 litre twin spark, I've had thi
vehicle from new and enjoyed every minute. The car has done only 45,000
miles since new,retirement present to myself. Since I've had the car theres
been a small problem, every so often when I pull up a small puff of smoke
comes from the front end and there is a smell of oil in the car.On my first
service I reported the problem, they said they could could not find any
fault. {Main Dealers what do they know}
The level of oil never went down between oil changes and I never have any
oil on the garage floor. I change the oil every 6,000 miles.

Anyway after 12 years I decided to change the spark plugs and I found a
small ammount of oil in number 4 well, this set me thinking and I took the
valve cover off to replace the gasket. The gasket comes in two parts, you
must change them both and it's a tricky job. I found that the cover has a
groove for the gasket to fit in so I smeared Hermatite in the groove and it
held the gasket firm. I also made two false bolts with no heads to help
guide the cover on and after replacing everything the car started OK. It is
4 weeks since I did the job and I've had no trouble since.

You would have thought that the Main Dealer {Spit} would have known about
this problem. I've done my own servicing since.

Bill Jackson