Should the edge of the valve cover gasket be dry?

[Gary Yogurt]

So, possibly stupid question. About 120 miles ago I installed a new (Victor Reinz) valve cover gasket on my M20B27. Everything went together clean and dry, torqued as per Bentley. New rocker arm plugs with RTV on the top of them.

Took a look today and the edge of the gasket (tiny bit showing between the cover and the head) is darker and glistens when I shine a light on it. Nothing pouring out, it just looks wet.

Is this normal?

[E30NJ]

Same thing is with mine, however my valve cover is black and the oil is much easier to see. My guess is the victor reinz red gasket hasn't seated yet so oil can get passed the gasket. As long as it doesn't leak like crazy, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Gary Yogurt]

Crap. The red RTV bead on the gasket didn't look up to the job, in my opinion. (Not enough.) I'll hope for the best.

[3vilE30]

Crap. The red RTV bead on the gasket didn't look up to the job, in my opinion. (Not enough.) I'll hope for the best.

I had the same problem with a crappy fitting MTC brand V/C gasket. Leaked in that corner near cylinder 1 I just used some off brand RTV like sealant and its holding up. Mind you it was leaking pretty bad, like there was traces of oil flowing down the block. Wipe off the area once in a while to check if its still leaking. You could always let it form its own dirty oil seal lol or just take it off and apply liberal amounts of RTV on the head and V/C gasket.

[SkiFree]

By far the biggest issue I've seen is over-tightening valve cover nuts, regardless of valve cover gasket "brand".