Yanmar 2GM20F valve cover oil leak - gasket sealant?

sailoppopotamus

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The valve cover of my 2GM20F leaks at the point where the cover rests on the engine. Not severely, not to the point that I have to regularly top up the engine with oil, but enough to make a mess of the engine and the bilge under it.

On inspection, there was some gooey red stuff around the cover indicating that the previous owner had unsuccessfully tried to fix the leak using red RTV. I took the cover off, cleaned all the red stuff away and replaced the o-ring with a new one from Yanmar. Unfortunately, it still leaks. I'm assuming the o-ring is seated properly, but it's hard to tell -- it doesn't stay in place very well (despite being liberally coated in oil) and perhaps it moved when I inverted the cover to put it back on the engine. But there's no real way of knowing -- it looks fine from the outside.

My idea was to remove the cover and smear the o-ring with Permatex Aviation gasket sealant. Is this a sound idea or a horrible mistake? I'm worried that tiny flecks of gasket sealant might get squeezed into the cover and foul the valves and whatever else is in there.
 
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