Ricky B.
Some thoughts for your consideration. At around 90K miles, I replaced the seals on my VANOS with good results. Naturally, I had to remove the valve cover and I purchased a new seal. But, upon close inspection of the top of the cover, which I keep very clean, I found micro cracks - you could not see them at room temp, but you could see tiny slivers of oil that ran in a continuous crack line near places that you would expect to be stress points. Like you, I also found evidence of old oil at the outside of the seal edge - it was clearly a small leak and the high temp of the exhaust was enough to burn it dry so no drip. Bottom line, I purchased a new valve cover at an aftermarket parts place (OEM part) and it came with the new seal pack (so I now have an extra seal pack, but oh well). I don't like oil leaks or doing things twice, so I replaced everything along my path that may be near its end of life. I know I replace stuff too early some times, but my personal time is limited since I'm a working slob like the 40% of people that actually pay taxes. I submit that your time and piece of mind is also valuable. Mahalo,