Can someone help me identify this part of my engine? Or tell me why sludge i there?
 

This is probably a silly question but I can't seem to find out how to refer to this part in order to research it! In regards to my '05 civic dx;

Is is common to have a sludge buildup on this piece (see pic)? I'm not too sure what it is or what it's bolting down... any insight would be greatly appreciated! I want to at last figure out what I'm looking at, and if it's normal :)

Thanks so much!!

https://www.hondacivicforum.com/foru...pictureid=6490

oook which piece lol, circle it please with yellow

Sorry man!!! Done and done! I even used actual yellow :)

Do I need to take a better picture? I've just looked through countless engine diagrams and I'm still trodding through my haynes manual but I just can't seem to identify the circled bolt thing with any name, and why there might be grime on it.

It's probably nothing I just wanted to know what I was talking about if I took it to someone to look at. There's also a weird white foam, you can kinda see it in the picture - is that normal? Am I paranoid or do I have a jerry rigged engine part?

It runs great... it's an 05 with 130 thousand km's... Really appreciate anyone's wisdom on this. Please forgive my ignorance.

well the white foam is probably just gasket sealant that got squeezed out when the valve cover was bolted on, i honestly have no idea what the bolt is for or what its attached to so maybe a different angle would help. also, the grime you're seeing is just b/c it gets dirty under there, it may have had oil spilled on it at one point and then dust just collected on it creating the sludge you're seeing now, unless you can see oil leaking anywhere you have nothing to worry about. Just do your best to clean it off and see if there is an oil leak.

Bro! That's exactly what I needed to hear.

Thanks a thousand ;)