Black crud under valve cover

[Afizzle]

Pulled the VC for powdercoating and upon re installation found this nasty black crud in the top of the head. there certainly has not been any performance issues or drivability issues so i do not think its causing a problem, im just curious as to what it is. it almost looks like the same stuff that will collect in your spark plug area after a looong time.

 

[1slow03cobra]

kinda looks like old charded oil deposits

 

[curt-s]

ARP lube from head studs? Can wash off the stud/nut from oil movement and deposit in low areas.
This would occur if you've (somewhat) recently put the head on with the aforementioned ARP hardware.

 

[faulkner]

yeah looks like old oil deposit

 

[Afizzle]

so nothing to worry about?

should I clean it off and risk breaking a chunk off into somewhere I cant get it out, or leave it alone?

 

[Breezio69]

Just grab a flat head screwdriver and a shop vac

You should have seen the 1/2" thick crap hiding under the valve cover on my jeep... all the way across the inline 6. Simple 20 minute valve cover gasket change turned into 6 hours and two oil changes within 500 miles because i sea foamed it twice after I scraped what I could out.

Just dont "fling" the stuff around, I worked the screwdriver like a chisel and then vacuumed it out in small sections. ... but mine was 100x worse than that

 

[xxNocturnalxx]

It's hard/crusty? Clean it out!

 

[97blkeclipse]

If it's accessible, get it out of there. If not just for the piece of mind..

 

[tater]

Diffidently clean it out. Just take your time to get all of it.

 

[Codyf07]

Looks like old sealant and oil, just clean it your good