I'm not a mechanic, but this doesn't look good. Just took the valve cover off on the gf's b16 and it looks as if some pieces have broken off, and if you look at the pics you can see what look like engraving marks right above the valve springs. Not sure how bad this is. We are taking the motor apart to drop new cams, springs and retainers in.. Just want to know if I need to do anything before putting this back together.
Please don't reply with dumb answers..

 

bump

 

looks normal to me

 

^^That hole and scratching doesn't look so normal.

Is that hole in the second pic near the distributor side? That chunk that broke out may be moving around during driving, and causing the scratching on the walls. Does it make any clinking noises during idle?

 

That hole is the distributor side. There's one on the cam gear side as well. Motor idles very quietly. No engine noise, but I will be paying better attention next time I start it up.