Valve covers that clear rolllers

Boosted92LX · Jun 11, 2011

Stever89 said:
Well, I'm going to have to order spacers. There's no way any amount of grinding bosses, removing baffles or doubling gaskets is going to clear this.
View attachment 186645
View attachment 186646

Man, at 8000 rpm's I'd say those polylocks are screamin' for some stud girdles. May wanna look into that!

85_SS_302_Coupe said:
Last time i checked, the spacers were about $150, which i think is INSANE. I've thought about trying to make my own out of an old set of valve covers or even if i could find some thick aluminum stock i could jigsaw them out myself.

This is absolutely plausible,I did it back in the 90's when I worked in the machine shop. We had scrap aluminum laying everywhere. Just traced out a gasket and got after it.

Problem is, If you went and bought that much 1/2 aluminum new, it'd probably cost $80 bucks these days. You are going to waste the cutout, there's no way around it. If you have a scrapmetal yard nearby maybe...

Stever89 · Jun 11, 2011

NikwoaC said:
Did you see what I had to do to get my stock valve covers to clear? I took some pics, you can see it in my progress thread.

Read your progress thread (awesome work btw) and I see how you Dremelized the bosses and made the necessary clearances. I just don't think that's going to work in my application, though I sure wish it would. I have a feeling my covers aren't going to fit even after hours of grinding away at them, and I don't want to double up on gaskets

Boosted92LX · Jun 11, 2011

stud girdles.

Search Results for 302 stud girdles - SummitRacing.com

Stever89 · Jun 11, 2011

SSeater said:
stud girdles.

Search Results for 302 stud girdles - SummitRacing.com

I'm looking into this. At the risk of sounding ignorant (too late ) what do they do, and will they cause even more clearance issues with the covers?

Edit: Done some reading and I see I could probably use them.. you're gonna get me in trouble

Boosted92LX · Jun 11, 2011

Stever89 said:
I'm looking into this. At the risk of sounding ignorant (too late ) what do they do, and will they cause even more clearance issues with the covers?

The tall polylocks (locknuts) on your roller rockers are designed to use with these girdles. The girdles stop excessive stud deflection that happens at high rpm's like 8k. You don't HAVE to run those tall polylocks, but in your case, I would. With the girdles.

Whoever built that engine knew what they were doing, and probably had girdles on there, but pulled them and sold them seperatly when the engine /car was sold. That happens a lot, I've noticed.

Look into tall valvecovers that clear them.(or keep the ones you have) Summit carries them among others. Function over form!

Stever89 · Jun 11, 2011

SSeater said:
The tall polylocks (locknuts) on your roller rockers are designed to use with these girdles. The girdles stop excessive stud deflection that happens at high rpm's like 8k. You don't HAVE to run those tall polylocks, but in your case, I would. With the girdles.

Whoever built that engine knew what they were doing, and probably had girdles on there, but pulled them and sold them seperatly when the engine /car was sold. That happens a lot, I've noticed.

Look into tall valvecovers that clear them.(or keep the ones you have) Summit carries them among others. Function over form!

You know, I think you're right. If you look you can see where they rubbed a bit of the finish off the rockers.

Boosted92LX · Jun 11, 2011

Stever89 said:
You know, I think you're right. If you look you can see where they rubbed a bit of the finish off the rockers.

IF you buy new girdles, you don't have to buy harland sharp or comp, the summit, or other house brands work just fine at almost half the cost. Ebay or craigslist is even better. I hate paying new cost for things like that.

Heck, you may ask the guy you bought it from, he may still have the old girdles..

Stever89 · Jun 11, 2011

SSeater said:
IF you buy new girdles, you don't have to buy harland sharp or comp, the summit, or other house brands work just fine at almost half the cost. Ebay or craigslist is even better. I hate paying new cost for things like that.

Heck, you may ask the guy you bought it from, he may still have the old girdles..

The guy who built the car/motor sold it to a kid who was dating my daughter. The kid didn't know why it wouldn't idle (I guess he thought it was F'ed) so he gave it to me, thinking it was junk. i have no way to find the original builder since my daughter's long since moved on, got married and now I have this coupe. Got about 1500 bucks in it from my wallet anyway. I figure there's over 1500 in the heads alone.

Stever89 · Jun 20, 2011

Got the spacers.

Covers on.

Quite a change from this.

Valve covers that clear rolllers

Boosted92LX

It's only an inch or two. What's the big deal?

Stever89

Boosted92LX

It's only an inch or two. What's the big deal?

Stever89

Boosted92LX

It's only an inch or two. What's the big deal?

Stever89

Boosted92LX

It's only an inch or two. What's the big deal?

Stever89

Stever89

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