Chris,
FWIW I have always had good with nothing but RTV on the front cover including the oil passage. One rebuild a couple years ago I decided that RTV was not good enough and I installed an o-ring with plastic recessed washer ala Bruce Turrintine's video. Well, that lasted about a month before I had low oil pressure issues and had to remove the front cover. I put RTV back in and have had no problems since. That stuff is amazing.