Rocker Covers for Greater Valve Clearance

[Owen Snell]

I've modified a few covers to give increased valve clearance, but they never seem to end up quite flat after working on them and then it's impossible to get the covers to seal completely. Are any of the commercially available high clearance covers worth trying to eliminate the clearance issues and the leaks?

[Owen Snell]

No idea how flat the other rocker covers were before working on them, but my 1 unmodified cover that did not leak is not distorted and had 2 small indents where the adjusters hit the valve cover. This time, I got an old socket to use as a die. I ground off one side at the rear so it would centre in the right place and not impinge on the raised portion of the cover and then dished it so that it was a nice fit around the curve of the cover. Then I got an extension bar, which already has a slightly domed square end, ground off the corners a little to round the profile and increase the 'dome'. By making some special tools, I have dimpled the cover without distortion. I then ground out the collision indents with a small stone on a Dremel, so there should be plenty of clearance and any new indents will be obvious. Going to get a new cover for the other side, find out where it hits and modify that as well.

[sideshow]

I don't know how to help, but for fun I think the Berg 910 valve cover conversion would be bass ass. The distance from exhaust od to exhaust od would determine how far off the rocker floor it would have to stand.
http://www.geneberg.com/cat.php?cPath=2811_2827&osC

[Owen Snell]

I don't know how to help, but for fun I think the Berg 910 valve cover conversion would be bass ass. The distance from exhaust od to exhaust od would determine how far off the rocker floor it would have to stand.
http://www.geneberg.com/cat.php?cPath=2811_2827&osC

That looks like the right idea, stand the cover off a bit, but engine out to drill the new positions for the bale springs.

[Piledriver]

A simple rocker box extension casting (or billet$$$) would do the trick.
Might be able to extend the factory bails, rather than drill new holes etc.?
(The stock valve cover set up works)
They make dead soft aluminum channel in various shapes,.. maybe something could be formed and welded or bonded in place?

OTOH the only folks that really need this would be running very high lifts, a ball peen hammer or a rounded off air chisel and a sand or shot bag are all you need for most cam setups. BBbbbrrrrrrrrt! Pneumatic hand nailers work too.

[Owen Snell]

A simple rocker box extension casting (or billet$$$) would do the trick.
Might be able to extend the factory bails, rather than drill new holes etc.?
(The stock valve cover set up works)
They make dead soft aluminum channel in various shapes,.. maybe something could be formed and welded or bonded in place?

OTOH the only folks that really need this would be running very high lifts, a ball peen hammer or a rounded off air chisel and a sand or shot bag are all you need for most cam setups. BBbbbrrrrrrrrt! Pneumatic hand nailers work too.

I used a shaped socket as a dir this time to keep all of the stress local to avoid any overall distortion. Seemed to work, or maybe the old covers were already distorted?