Any idea what this could be on my valve cover passenger side? Almost looks like oil. I can’t really tell.

 

Wipe it off with your finger and see if it feels like, smells like, oil would be my 1st diagnostic step. What year / mileage on your rig?

 

I'd guess oil as well, but kinda odd. I think i'd clean it well with some degreaser and observe for a bit to see where it starts forming again.

 

that’s a good idea. I have a leaking oil cooler as well (slow leak) so the shop looked at that and said if it’s the valve cover gasket then they replace that anyways when doing the oil cooler. Seems like it would solve the problem.

 

I've removed that passenger side VC before and it was a monumental pain in the ass. I basically had to pull the battery, battery box and fuse box, remove the PCV valve in the back which ain't easy, and unbolt the dipstick from a few places. Even then it was the hardest VC I've ever had to work out and back in due to the clearance back there at the firewall. My point being that it isn't a 5 mins job once the intake manifold is off while you're accessing the oil cooler. I'm not sure how they could say that is replaced while doing the cooler anyhow.

I'd still do that cleaning soon and keep an eye on it BEFORE dealing with the oil cooler. I might even give the cover a light dusting with something so that the oil can stick to something and show itself rather than just have a clean VC to work across. It's just an unusual mess on top of the VC that it very well might not be the actual VC gasket. It's even on top of that one bracket over the VC. It's probably a stretch, but if you have a leaky cooler the best hope would be just oil air being mixed around in there and finding a home on a dusty VC.