Posted by Ricky Kirkhuff on Monday, October 25, 2004 at 12:52PM :
In Reply to: Re: 440 valve cover gaskets posted by stephen on Sunday, October 24, 2004 at 9:11PM :
stephen, Thanks for remembering them in a better light than they are, they do work great. Ross, I took a piece of 26 ga. roof metal 'bout 18" long by 5" or so. Along one long edge I put a 90 degree bend at 1/2" and then another one the other way 3/8" further along to make a zig zag piece of metal that sits "shelf style" on the outside of the lip of the valvecover, covering the entire exhaust side of the valvecover and 1/4" of the head. With that metal in place, I marked for two 5/8" cuts "curve up, horse shoe shaped", adjacent to the valvecover holdown screws, where I could fold the tab created by the horseshoe cuts flat, drill holes and mount under the valvecover screws, after sanding the rough edges. I have the 2 1/2" ID extreme upswept, high performance factory exhaust manifolds from a '68 Newport. They share a common wall with the valvecover about 1/2" apart for 'bout 50% of the valvecover's side wall area, It got such a heat transfer near the exhaust port it heat discolored and warped the valvecover as though a carless oxy-acetlyne torch had been set to it. FYI ,warped valvecovers leak even MORE than melted gaskets. HA HA. yeah, stephen, someday I WILL swap out that galvinized tin for stainless but it works so good as is and today I've gotta take the company dumptruck and go get a new battery for Air Force One, Last week it was the starter. It ran great all spring and summer, I guess I'm just gettin' current on my "truck payments". Keep the tired iron runnin' Ricky