IROCWPB

Hey guys, I've got my valve covers off. I took them off for two reasons, one is because somehow oil is leaking past the gaskets onto my manifold when the car sits and it's pissing me off, the other is because I'm hearing some weird noises/vibrations from underneath the passenger side cover. While I'm under there what should I be looking for that could be causing this vibration?



Thanks
Justin

Apeiron

A "valve job" involves tearing the top half of the engine off and disassembling and machining the heads and valves. What is it that you want to do?

IROCWPB

the drivers side exhaust manifold is too close to the head - cooking the valve cover gasket, yummy!

IROCWPB

How tight should the rocker nuts be? I saw a guy in another thread say something about one hand on the ratchet and a pinky on the extension, but I can loosen all my nuts with one hand on the ratchet - maybe I don't understand what he means.

ede

you don't tighten rocker nuts on a SBC, or BBC. you set valve lash and where even the nut happens to be is where it is. a how to ought to be in your manual or do a seach here, i tihnk someone ask about it last week.

rgarcia63

The camshaft needs to be in a certain position for each valve, or group of valves before adjusting the valve lash.
Please locate the proper procedure for your engine, if you've already loosened, or tightened any nuts don't start the engine, you may not like what happens.

jamon8

iTrader: (3)

dont run the engine after simply tighting the valves

I bought a truck that ran like shizzel and after a bit of tear down I found a bent pushrod and a lifter in the valley

get a book unless someone else wants to type more than me and adjust the rocker nuts the right way.

IROCWPB

I have a Haynes manual but I'm not sure if it covers what I'm looking to do. I didn't loosen any of the nuts any more than just to see if they'd turn so it'd be quite easy to do the reverse.

edit: found the valve lash adjustment section, seems simple enough.

IROCWPB

I'm done adjusting my rockers, some of them seemed quite a bit out of adjustment. like they never got that extra 3/4 turn.

Now, before i bolt the valve covers back on, can I spray out any debris or anything that fell in the oil pools with some carb cleaner or something?

Also, on the drivers side, the exhaust manifold interferes with the valve cover seating properly, should I notch out the valve cover where it's been hitting to get a better seal?

ede

use a shop vac or compressed air. you wouldn't want a solvent getting into the oil, unless you want to change the oil too.

rgarcia63

Can you attach a pic of the valve cover especially were it's hitting the manifold, also upside down with that side towards you, and one of the area of the manifold in question?
There shouldn't be any interference with the stock covers at all.

IROCWPB

You can see the blue gaskets where I notched the covers.




Also, does anyone know what might be leaking vacuum underneath the plenum? I can hear the leak from the drivers side alot better than from the passenger side, but there's just not alot of room to look around in there. It sounds like it could be coming from the EGR but there's a vacuum line running from under the distributor that's hooked up to the EGR, is there another line that should be hooked to something under there?

rgarcia63

I don't think it'll seal now with those notches. I that brownish area around the notches where it was getting hot? If so, the heat weaken the flange, and the notches have weaken it even more.
If possible I'd grind down those manifold nubs and replace the Valve Cover.
My manifold has those nubs but they're small and there's about a 1/4" clearance from the edge of the Valve Cover flange.

The EGR is the only thing under the Plenum that requires vacuum, but a idle there should be no vacuum to the EGR valve. The Fuel Pressure Regulator is also close by, but It's vacuum source is right above it on the Plenum.

Use a long piece of 1/4" rubber hose to your ear to find the leak if it's loud enough to hear over the engine noise.

Does it have the cold start injector, can you give the year of the engine, I can see the manifold once had an A.I.R. manifold where the plugs are, not sure if the same exhaust manifold was used for all models.

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

You could get some nice new cheesy $20 chrome valve covers, will brighten up the engine bay, and most likely stop the leaking.

Also, a 383, and cast iron log manifolds? Get some headers, that'll solve a handful of problems right there.

IROCWPB

Well so far I haven't seen any more leaking out of my valve covers, time will tell though. I haven't put headers on it yet because i'd have to get a whole new exhaust, I dont think there are any headers that will hook to the factory Y pipe, is there?

I pulled the manifold in question out of a junkyard, so chances are it was off a slightly different year, something got messed up with my old manifold, so I put on whatever I could find that fit.

Yeah, I do have a cold start Injector, and that's the general area that the sound is coming from. The PCV Valve hose also runs right there but it doesn't seem that that's doing it. The fuel pressure regulator is in good shape and accessible enough for me to rule it out. I believe th engine in it is the original (rebuilt) 88' L98 block. When I put the engine back in after having it stroked to a 383 I removed all the emissions crap,so thats why all the holes are plugged, the manifold on the other side actually has all the holes welded shut.

A few more vacuum related issues, the vacuum port on the very rear of my plenum says it's for HVAC, where exactly is that supposed to be hooked to? And the upper connecton on the canister opposite the battery, is that supposed to be hooked to the metal tube that's running up the rail with the fuel lines?

Sonix

iTrader: (1)

No, at least none that you'd want to use. Fair enough I guess. I just wouldn't put a lot of effort into working around headers since you'll be replacing them soon anyway. You could do headers and a y-pipe, then just connect them to the rest of the piping on the car, which you can replace later down the line.

IROCWPB

Yeah, you've got a point. Currently I don't have the 700$ to spend for the Hooker 2055's I'd go with though. It is a beautiful setup that I'd love to have, I'll probably buy them soon. Before that though, I want to get everything else good with my car. I have a problem currently where the primary cooling fan isn't kicking on unless i unplug the secondary fan, ugh!