I noticed a couple days ago that a valve cover bolt was missing so i took the valve cover off today and there's some oil in it. I'd taken the other one off a couple weeks ago and it was dry. So can i dab up this oil, get a new gasket and bolt and be alright or is this more serious. I also did a compression test couple months ago and the side that had the missing bolt was pretty low so maybe this explains it.

 

there should be oil under it. there should be oil all over the springs and the rockers.
obviously the excess will flow down into the oilpan.
when the rockers move it might cause the oil to jump onto the surface of valve cover. perfectly normal.
Having the rockers and valves/springs dry is a problem.

how low was compression?
take the dry side off again. maybe you just had the engine not running for a week so most of the oil would have gone down.
Any chance you can makea picture from both sides so we get an idea how much oil/ how dry ?!

 

double post

 

cool i think your right about the dry one's too, i hadn't driven the car in awhile when i took those off. there wasn't much oil really, i could dab it all up with one paper towel. as far as the compression goes, i checked the first two on the right side, which is the side with oil and the missing bolt, and they were both between 80 and 90, which is well below the 130-170 recommended.

 

I had an oil system failure once, the valves dried out of oil on the freeway. It was a very bad day.

 

Thats one thing I watch like a hawk.. My oil pressure gauge.. If that thing ever falls below 25 on a hot day sitting at idle, i think I will kill over.. When I got the car, once it was warm it would drop to 1-2psi.. My cam bearings were sticking out of the journals..

It sounds like you are ok with the oil in the valves.. just make sure that the dry side wasnt "dry" like rusty dry.. As long as you get some oil up there moving around while it runs you should be ok..

 

Valvetrains don't live long without oil. The springs in particular need the oil for cooling, they generate a substantial amount of heat.

 

I'd say quickly run the engine (just 30 secs). then get rid of both valve covers and see for oil. it should be well soaked. you should have puddles everywhere.
the valve cover bolt missing will only cause the gasket to leak and you loosing oil out of it. it wil NOT affect compression ratio.
There's clearly something wrong when you have only half the PSI on two cylinders.
If they are directly next to each other this usually indicates head gasket problems.

The best idea is probably to bring the car to a shop to have it checked out.

Kalli