I have a small oil leak at the lower forward edge of the left valve cover. I had noticed a couple drops of oil on the garage floor, and it took me over an hour to trace it from the bottom of the bell housing (first suspected rear main seal), up the block plate to the rear of the oil pan (then suspected the oil pan gasket), then up the block to the left head (found a drop of oil on the #8 cyl exhaust header flange), up the head to the rear of the valve cover, along the lower edge to the front lower edge of the valve cover.
I haven't pulled the valve cover off yet. I don't want to crank down on the valve cover bolts yet either, as I don't trust myself to have the "touch" as to how tight to tighten those bolts down. (I may not know how tight they should be, but I do know that they should not be cranked down very tight in order to not destroy the valve cover.) All I've done so far is to put a wrench on the valve cover bolts to make sure they were snug and not loose, and to clean up all the oil so that I can track it better now.
It's a 427w Dart, Edlebrock Victor Jr. Heads., and the motor has 200 miles on it so far. I figure my two options at this point are tighten the bolts a tad more, or pull the valve cover and inspect the mating surfaces and gasket.
I'm looking for any info and advice on what I should be looking for, or how I should address the issue. Is this common? How tight is tight on those valve covers? Thanks all.