Wow Tom's pictures are bad............ If you ever get a chance to see how small the holes are in the cam housing spray bar, you'll agree that RTV is bad news for these engines. OK, I can't resist. They're basically pinholes
Unfortunately the thru-bolt o-rings act like more of a packer than an actual o-ring. Regardless, the goal is to get them installed without being excessively mangled, which would cause a leak. I believe the recommendation of RTV in the rebuild book was to counteract the mangled o-ring occurrence.
There was a "friendly" debate about this and if you can wade thru some of the argument, there was some pretty good discussion
Your opinion wanted. Green bolt through viton o-rings with rtv
Case Through O-Ring trouble??