they all have some oil in them around base of plugs, but not very much. The gaskets on the tubes are bad as well as the valve cover gaskets. I have all the gaskets & common chamber gaskets I need to change them, thats what I was going to do this week while I was off work before this came up.

Bottom front of alternator is pretty oily and crud covered from the leaking valve covers, I can believe it could have issues. I think that same oil killed a starter about 2 yrs ago.

When I say battery is good, I mean its strong, cranks quickly even with headlights on, and obviously hasnt lost a cell.

Now, when I started looking at this there was some crusty stuff on top of the battery around the hold down clamp, I actually removed the battery to hose it off. the terminals were crudded up, and I cleaned them. I noticed today that the top of the battery was wetlooking too after running, and cells on part were hissing from pressure built up inside, (relief holes might be plugged up). Seems like the battery might be getting overcharged. This was after the episode where the voltage pegged out at the time the vehicle was almost inoperable.