engines, big and small

The soob is leaking oil into the top of the spark plug. I have convinced myself that it's a blown valve cover gasket. Coworker suggested just reefing on the cover bolts: it did nothing. New gasket ordered, driving borrowed Ford Focus in meantime. But: am I right? Doesn't the valve cover gasket just go around the outside? The spark plug's a hole in the middle, like unto an old flathead engine. What if there's something totally different, like some weird flaw in the head itself?
Sigh.
The rototiller is tilling. After rebuilding the starter, I was running it and it started lugging down. I opened the ... I guess it's simultaneously a choke and a throttle, even though it's not intended for either: the tiller's supposed to just run at a single setting, but it has a valve at the venturi to limit airflow. Anyway, I opened it, let more air in, and it ran better. I kept doing that and it kept doing better. Weird. Then I was poking at it and realized that the whole carb was sort of rattly and stuff. The two bolts that hold it to the engine were loose, and it was in the process of falling off -- which process meant that it was sucking air in and blowing fuel/air out the gap that had opened between the carb and the intake. That could've been FUN had enough fuel/air gotten over to the exhaust. I tightened it as best I could, given the constraints of the design. Poor old thing. It needs loctite.

Rototilling is done. Crop circle is implemented. It'll be poppies, apparently: the veggies will go in the garden area and maybe along the fence where the schnauzers play.

Meanwhile I'm tired to the point of incoherence.