380Se valve cover screws, How tight?
 

I noticed that I had a couple small oil leaks near the Valve cover screws. when i tried to tighten them, they were really loose. I snugged them up (all were loose), but just how tight should they be. This car lives/lived on a rough dirt road and I wonder if they loosened, or never were tight. I'll watch this to see if I stopped the leaks.
Any ideas?

OOOH boy...
If they were loose guess its best to tighten them up.
Go easy
wipe it down & recheck

Also when you tighten
try to do the across method
so as to not tighten one side before the other

Just enough resistance you don';t want to cut the gasket

Heck just enough to seal it
but if its near screws???
could be a breakdown if someone added a gasket putty around screws
maybe it fell away & screws were then looser???

Hmmm
I don't know
guessing..but
just go easy

Hope its nothing

I'm not sure of the spec, but remember that the seal happens by slightly compressing the gasket, not squashing it. It's hard to describe. I use a 1/4" ratchet and tighten with one hand until it just gets hard to turn.

Yep that's what I did too. I remember buying a 1953 Chevy Sedan Delivery(before they were cool)(1966) for $35.00 because the "Rear Main" was leaking and the PO didn't want to deal with it. Usually the first thing I do to a used car is check certain things. one of which is to check the valver cover bolts. The rear bolt on the Six Cylinder Chey were so loose I almost hurt my wrist as I tried them. I tightened them up and VOILA! the "rear main" fixed itself. It was leaking oil out the back of the valve cover, down the side of the block and dripping off the rear main seal housing. I owned the car for about two years and the rear main never did leak.