[David Jerome]

I would rather replace the front cover gasket than the oil pan gasket. Call atkins and order yourself a mazdaspeed metal front cover gasket. No need for RTV and you can delete the oil crossover o-ring. The hardest two things when fixing the front cover are: 1. If the engine is original or has more than 25k miles on it, trying to get the front nut off can be a pain unless you have a 1" impact gun rated at over 1000ftlbs. My 600ft lb gun often doesnt have what it takes to remove the bolt even with 140psi of air going to it. The second thing which isnt really difficult but just annoying, is removing and reinstalling the AC compressor.

It is a much simpler job than the oil pan in my opinion. The one down side is resealing your oil pan, it is near impossible to reseal the area under the front cover correctly, you will likely end up with a small oil pan leak, but nothing that results in 1/2 cup of oil in 10 mins. A front cover leak can be dangerous, seen a car catch fire due to a bad front cover leak.