I was told that water jackets are behind this front cover. A retired JD mechanic helped me with this and he said they had done dozens of these with just the gaskets and new front seal. Actually he said "hundreds" but surely that was exaggerated...He did not replace the water pump at all; said it looked good.
I have about 10 hours on the engine so far after this and so far it's fine. Oil is crystal clear still.
It does have a real slight miss that was there before all this, and I plan to remove the valve covers to check the valves. It tends to char the left spark plug in about 4 months.
He used some kind of gasket sealer that you see running down the front.
View attachment 339824
