I was the person who suggested replacing the gasket on the filler cap. It doesn't have to look bad to do a poor job of perventing oil from leaking around the cap- there is a tremendous amount of oil being thrown around under the cam cover and that alone will cause leakage if the gasket is old, hard and not sealing. I can understand not wanting to blow crankcase seals (been there, done that in my early "flametrap ignorant" days). It seems you have determined that the plumbing is free flowing- have you checked to make sure the small nipples and hose from the intake manifold through to the flametrap is open? If all the passages are open then maybe you should go ahead and change the gasket.

Randy