The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop Valve Cover Gasket Replacement

Answered my own question.

Yes. It does overhang the pushrod cover. I installed the new, single Mahle valve cover gasket and the grommets, washers and acorn nuts fit as they should.

No leaks on the valve cover and now, no leaks on the pushrod cover. The slotted screw on the bottom of the cover , just forward of the draft tube was seeping oil through the threads. Rats!

I removed it and coated it with Super 300. Nope.

Used thread sealer. Nope.

Then I got a tube of RTV, stuck the end in the hole and squeezed out some. Installed panhead screw. Woohoo, success!


Now, since the engine is so much more quiet, I'm annoyed by a tick that on a normal engine would be a stuck hydraulic lifter. Does this mean that I need to go through the rockers again and do another hot adjustment? Maybe the 216 is just noisier than the engines I'm used to and I should leave well enough alone?

Oil is flowing very well into the rocker shaft. Everything up there is plenty oily now.

Did you happen to look at the rocker arm tips where they engage the valves? They often develop a groove in the middle of them where they ride on the valves.
This causes a problem when you place the feeler gauge in there to set the valve lash. The feeler gauge bridges the gap worn in the rocker arm tip resulting in too large of a gap which will cause the tick.
Find the noisy one, turn the engine off and loosen the lock nut and tighten rocker arm screw a smidge. tighten the lock nut and start it up and see if the noise went away. It may take a few tries to get rid of the tick.
You don't want to go too far preventing the valve to close.
You could also trim the feeler gauge to a width a bit narrower than the diameter of the valve tip and set the lash to specs.

That makes sense. I didn't inspect them all closely. I was focused on the four ruined ones at the rear of the head. I inspected all the other inner wear surfaces but only gave the tips a cursory look. I don't remember seeing any that were obviously worn into a groove but I guess if it were just a few thousandths, I wouldn't have noticed.

I do have a set of feeler gauges that are about 3/16" wide so I'll go back and check everything with them.

Dang Jalopies! The fun never ends!

I picked up a narrow feeler gauge today and did another hot valve adjustment. That did the trick. You'll think you're listening to a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud!


Valve Cover Off: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KqbanufAUk

Valve Cover On: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S4vPa5A4wQ

With my '52 216, I had one valve which ticked. I whittled a feeler gauge narrow and reset the valve lash and it went away.
I wished that had I left it alone.
From then on, I couldn't tell if the engine was running while waiting for the light to change. Stomping the starter pedal sure did confirm that it was running...

That happened to me once today. I started the truck at Auto Zone and then hit the starter again while the engine was running because I didn't know it actually started.