Ive read up the various catch can threads with wonder, my EL basically seems to bleed oil out the rocker cover with great enthusiasm, especially compared to my EF with twice as many km but remains more or less as clean as it was 100k ago. Should I be looking at the gasket or the oil itself before considering catch cans? The car has a dev5 cam & heavier springs, but is otherwise stock as far as the engine goes.

I would change the pcv itself to a new one and see what happens. They are cheap. about $15 and you can do it yourself in seconds. Basically the pcv should block under load. Sounds like your existing one has lost its capability. In fact I was told there should be changed every 2 years whether it needs it or not.

Replace the rocker cover gasket and the 4 rubber gromets/seals that go on the bolts.
Those 4 rubber gromets/seals are what holds down the rocker cover, the bolts have a " Crush tube ", so the bolts only do up so far.
So when the gromets shrink over time, the tension isn't enough for the gasket.

 

 

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wheres the best place to pick those gromets up from?

cool, will check out cheers