The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop My newest issue: rocker arms hitting valve cover..

Don't you love unpeeling the mysteries of an engine bought from someone else??

So now that I have this engine running, I can see one rocker arm causing a hairline crack in the cheapie valve covers on this engine. I've read I can get thicker gaskets, or cut slots in the valve cover holes, but this is one I've totally never seen before! It's a 350 with 882 heads and a Weiand aluminum intake.

The arms and studs are secure, it just looks like a minor design flaw, but I don't want to buy new valve covers and damage them as well. It also has stock rocker arms on it, I'm wondering if roller rockers would provide more space on the pushrod side? Just thinking out loud..

I went ahead and ordered Proform stamped steel Chevy valve covers today, and some new gaskets. We'll see how those fare.

So today I swapped the valve covers, gaskets, and studs with the new parts I ordered- I immediately measured the taiwanny Johnny covers that were on the engine when I bought it, and I found the covers to be 1/8" narrower in inner width than the new Proforms... That alone made happier to put the junk ones in the trash!!

I haven't fired the engine with the new covers on it yet, but I'm already fairly confident that I'm in a better place!!

So happy it is not just me with things like this..

Had I not seen someone else online with the issue, I never would have thought the inner widths of these things would be different sizes!!

That was just crazy.