If the crack is easy to get at, can you clean it off and apply some sealant A local garage will advise you or may be Halfords could advise which would be best to use. If it is as minor as you say perhaps some heavy duty tap would do the job. It does get quite warm on the cover so you would need something that would resist the heat.

Ford garage wanted £125 an hour to diagnose , I took to indy and it was cam cover that was leaking it was £260 to buy from ford plus labour, I will never buy a ford again

I will never buy a ford again

Normal heat-of-the-moment knee-jerk reaction. You could look at it another way - you have suffered the statistically unlikely failure, so you won't get another for a long time ?

£260 for a rocker cover seems exorbitant, especially as the design/manufacture/quality control is so poor they can fail after 4 years and 15000 miles.

£125 to diagnose is also unjustifiable.

As a DIY repair thorough cleaning/degreasing and JB weld may well fix the leak, JB weld is rated OK for likely rocker cover temperatures (up to 550 F/280 C).

Or get it welded?

I'd guess this is probably alloy so tricky to weld. If pressed steel (old fashioned?) it'll be very thin, so tricky to weld.

As said, heat resistant tape or some epoxy stylee goop, maybe one of the "liquid metal/metal putty" ones, with prior degreasing, is a potential DIY fix, or one could perhaps get it brazed.

Maybe even superglue, which is very thin so might wick into the crack, and costs buttons, but I think the ordinary consumer stuff only goes up to around 125C.

Loctite? Various grades available, oil and temperature resistant

But as the OP is already complaining about paying for a new one, its too late, and probably always was.

Edited by edlithgow on 09/03/2022 at 02:03