Tall valve covers (Page 1/1)
Darren's 87 coupe JUN 15, 10:36 PM
Wanting to do a 383 engine swap with roller rockers that would require tall valve covers. I know that they already have problems with the standard ones, I was just wondering if anyone knew of it being done before or if it's just not possible?
lou_dias JUN 16, 09:15 AM

quote
Originally posted by Darren's 87 coupe:
Wanting to do a 383 engine swap with roller rockers that would require tall valve covers. I know that they already have problems with the standard ones, I was just wondering if anyone knew of it being done before or if it's just not possible?


I had this problem with the Fiero V6 valve covers and designed CNC cut aluminum spacers. You have to run 2 gaskets but if you can find spacers, 2 gaskets and a spacer is probably cheaper than special valve covers...
Darren's 87 coupe JUN 16, 02:45 PM
Thanks for the suggestion but I already have the valve covers
Anyone else have them?
fieroguru JUN 16, 07:36 PM
You don't need super tall valve covers to clear most roller rockers, but any additional height becomes an issue with the passenger decklid hinge and the dogbone mount by the passenger strut tower.

With a manual transmission, you can mount the SBC low enough to clear the decklid hinge box with the stock stamped steel ones, but taller valve covers will require trimming the decklid hinge boxes. Here you can see how close the bottom stud and nut for the decklid hinge is to the valve cover.



When you do need to clearance the decklid hinge box for valve cover clearance, I am a big fan of removing them entirely and going with a more hidden hinge setup.
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/085829.html


This swap has roller rockers and the hinge box elimination:

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 06-16-2020).]

Darren's 87 coupe JUN 16, 08:08 PM
Thank you. I hadn't seen the hidden hinge idea before.