Want to go ahead and add my two cents. I too had tons of puking oil, I too found the turbo to have no shaft play, but sadly I had it rebuilt anyway (which caused more problems than it solved, of course). After looking up threads on Miata forums (and a 323 post, and a post here) about how much those baffles will screw you over, I took mine apart. I too found that, from the factory, it didn't appear they used any sort of sealant on my valve cover. I don't know if the sealant they used just disintegrated over the years or what, but I redid both baffles with black RTV and reassembled it. I haven't gotten the car running yet due to other problems, but we'll see if that does the trick.
belleaudb, did you not use RTV on the second baffle, the one on the far left in the photo you posted?