Sprayed some degreaser on it, let it sit for a while and just gently started brushing the crud off. Followed up with sucking all the crud up with the shop vac. Rinsed with an insect sprayer filled with water. Shop vac again. Repeated the process until it looked like I actually cleaned it.
The crud on it was unreal. Half of the gasket wasn't even on the cover/head. If the crud wasn't too bad, I most likely would have left everything undisturbed. Wasn't the case here. Definitely needed some attention.
