Valve cover gasket leak question

[Solphilos]

Hey guys, I have quick question about a leak I'm having.
This is a 95 Corolla 1.6l

A few days ago I replaced my VCG and spark plug tube seals; cleaned all mating surfaces, installed new gasket using RTV as per manual and am now having a small leak on the front of the valve cover, under the bolt closest to the timing chain cover.

My mistake was not using a torque wrench; without one available I instead tightened by hand and then with a wrench snugged down to what "felt" like an approximation of proper torque.
What missed was that the nut on the front left side of the valve cover was cross-threaded, resulting in a leak.

My question is this; can I simply remove the nuts and redo them using proper sequence and torque, or should I get a new gasket and start this whole thing over?

I tried simply tightening this nut down but made it worse.

[Brian R.]

Did you tighten the bolt cross-threaded? or did you tighten it square and correct on good threads? How did you cross-thread it if you first tightened it by hand? I'm missing something here.

[Solphilos]

Originally Posted by Brian R.

Did you tighten the bolt cross-threaded? or did you tighten it square and correct on good threads? How did you cross-thread it if you first tightened it by hand? I'm missing something here.

Sorry, I'll try to explain better.

Using just the socket, I tightened each bolt in a star pattern until they would no longer turn. I then used a ratchet to tighten each nut a little at a time until they felt snug enough.
I thought they were all equally tight but one was actually cross-threaded, and subsequently not nearly tight enough.

[Brian R.]

How could the one bolt be cross-threaded if you first tightened it by hand? Cross-threaded bolts don't turn more than a turn or two if you're tightening it by hand. You should have noticed a difference in how many turns you were able to move them.

How many turns is the bolt into the bolt hole? Just a couple? All the way in? Remove it and see what damage you have done to the head. If it didn't get threaded very far, you may be able to clean the threads in the head up and just tighten it down gently. Don't do any more damage to the threads in the head.