Putting my 327 back together. Have shaft mount roller rockers and having some clearence issues with the covers. The rockers are hitting the breather mounts inside the cover. I am using Cal Custom Tall finned covers. I also have a set of Edlebrock Elites that fit okay, but rather the cals. Seems I need another 1" or slightly better. Found these from Summit. http://www.summitracing.com/parts/STF-63900/ Read a couple threads, but could find the answers below. Any issues with running spacers? Any advise also on what breather to run that will eliminate some clearence issues inside the cover? Thanks.
Brodix also makes them and I will be buying some for the BBC in Wildthing so I can run Cal Customs, gotta be kool!
I had mine custom made (1" spacers for an early Olds...there are pics on here). I needed extra clearance, because of custom rockers and I had to shim the shaft assembly ~1/4" to get the valvetrain geometry correct. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420264 I could get you in touch w/ the guy that did mine, but I would think there would be a lot of solutions out there for a sbc.
That's a tough call, Personally I'd look at other valve covers Moneys tight these days(at least around here it is). If your dead set on running the cal customs then that's pretty much your only option.
Those are expensive. Only issue I see are sealing, I guess you could "bond" the spacers to the covers or something similar to reduce one set of gaskets, dont know how well it will work. Can you vent with a one way pcv valve thru the spacer instaed of out the valve cover to a remote breather, this way you dont need to cut into the valve cover. Look at the pic of the remotely ventilated valave covers for circle track. Think about running the vents out of the spacer instead of out of the valve cover with a remote breather. You can run non breather valve covers and still vent. Im not familiar with the valvecovers you have, cant you grind away the breather area for clearance. Ive seen braided stainless from the top fo valve covers to a remote breather that looked and worked very nice, either 1 or 2 breathers remotely. http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speed...Covers-with-Crossover-Breather-Tube,1887.html nice looking breather? http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Finned-Valve-Cover-Breathers,7426.html
thanks guys. I have the cals already and pretty much deadset on running them. large any problems with leaking or issues at all? Curious about spacing a valvecover.
http://www.amazon.com/ANSEN-Chevy-Valve-Cover-Spacers/dp/B003HPIEN0 $20 cheaper and it seems SPeedway has them even cheaper...
We needed 3/4 of an inch to clear a stud girdle on a 400 SBC using tall M/T's. We glued two thick cork gaskets together and glued them to the valve covers with Indian Head. For a couple bucks it solved the problem with no leaks. The only problem is we have to take the master cylinder and booster off to remove the cover for valve adjustments....
A friend of mine has run VC adapters on a few of his Fords. If you use good gaskets, you should not have any leak issues. The adapter/spacer is only as good as the gaskets that seal them.
I certainly understand about being dead-set on running a certain v/c; of course, in my situation the choice was limited. As far as leaking, I have not fired the engine up yet. But, the spacers were made from a big old hunk of aluminum and milled flat. They were pricey, but they are dead nuts with regards to flatness and parallelism. That being said, when I originally siliconed the spacer to the cover, the flatness on the cast Offy covers was horrendous. I have since had the Offy covers machined flat by the same guy that did the spacers. Everything is so true now that when the covers were wet from being cleaned w/ IPA, they formed a vacuum with the spacers and would hold them in the air. Currently, I have a very thin film of silicone holding the two together. I am not anticipating any leaks.
great advise again guys. I appreciate the help. I imagine we can always welded the spacers to the covers. I looked at the ansen spacers, only reason I posted the summit ones is because they are 1/8" tall making them 1.12" tall.
Ive used a set of ansens on my small block ford for a year and a half with a small bead os ford diesel silicone , the grey stuff between the spacers and my old mt covers with no issues at all
Just a thought......... And always trying to help. M/C valve cover clearance issues IF the front sump of the oil pan will still clear the cross member. Take a new pair of the old 6-banger/'67 350SS engine rip-a-part stock rubber mounts and drill a single 3/8" hole through the middle of them, then 45 degree countersink the side that is tight and bolt solid using the needed Grade-8 hardware. I tell this b/c I figure these are the thinnest rubber mounts made and before I got my rubber mount recall letter, I'd already done this and continued to run them on my 350SS, the old junk301 and finally my hopped up 409 "W" engine fine! pdq67 PS., I'm thinking this will drop an engine something like a 1/2" to maybe 9/16" vs new Poly Mounts w/ plates.....
Good question I have to look into that. My other thought was to weld in a small pipe ad use a push on breather, clamp it onto the pipe. There would be no clearence issues under the cover this way.
The Jalopy Journal
