there is this black greay residue coming out from under my valve cover right at the gasket. is this a good sign that i need a new one or is it more serious than that? by the way the car is a 97 hx.

 

Is is all around? Or is starting to leak in one specific area? It may be something further up on the head, like the cam seal, distributor seal, etc.

 

its coming from the right side of the motor by the cam gear and right above my header. but there is enough of it that i cant tell where it started from.

 

one thing you can do, is clean up your engine block, get all the oil off of it. After you're finished, let it run, and keep an eye on it, might just be your cam seal. Of course if you have the tools/know-how, do a leak down test.