Valve cover project - PICS
 

So continuing to want the cleanest look for my engine bay I went and started on a new project earlier tonight involving the valve cover. Its just a new cleaner way to securely hold your COP's with out using the ugly metal sheet everyone else uses to hold there COP's down.

Pics go by steps taken.

I'll let the pictures explain now:
http://i40.tinypic.com/b3wupz.jpg
you will first have to remove the middle plate underneath the valve cover to remove the metal shavings.
http://i43.tinypic.com/oknclj.jpg

Here I set the cop how I wanted it to be held down. used a screw driver as a punch to mark where to drill the hole.
http://i43.tinypic.com/2saaypu.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/a2t6jk.jpg

shown is the tap (thread size 1/4) but you can use any and some long screws that will be later cut to size.
http://i43.tinypic.com/14lr77s.jpg

holes are now drilled and tapped. Test fitted everthing and it looks good! :giggle:
http://i39.tinypic.com/x8s91.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/15hli5i.jpg

The plan is to cut and remove the head of the screw and have it at the perfect length, Use red loctite on the new threads made on the valve cover, The loctite should create a good seal so no oil leaks out of the new threaded holes. Reinstall the plate that was removed and ad some wrinkle paint for a clean fresh looking valve cover. For the nuts being used for the screws i,ll be using the nylon locking type.

So obviously i'm not done yet. It was getting a little late so I called it a night. Once I finish working on it tmrw i,ll post pics of the finished product

Nice idea! Maybe a good idea would be to turn the bolts upside down, feed them up through to the top of the valve cover then two nuts with Loctite to hold it in place? This is assuming the bolt heads aren't going to foul on anything in the head...

I was originally going to do this but if you look closely at the last picture you'll see that the screw holes are right up against the wall of the sparkplug hole so no way the head of the screw would fit =(

Ah, I see. Bummer!

http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/43...600x600Q85.jpg

What ugly metal sheet? lol

Piece of aluminum between the cops and the valve cover. You screw the cops into that instead of drilling into the valve cover. You just use the valve cover bolts to hold the aluminum piece in place.

Nice work. I was thinking about doing the same thing

yea I agree with artie have you looked at the write up on the cops??? Brain shows you how to make a nice plate that goes under the cops.. :hustler:


Attachment 199408

Very, very cool.

I'd been wanting to do this exact thing when I built mine, but couldn't bring myself to drill the VC for some reason. Wound up with something similar to Artie and P51, using a piece of 1/4" thick bar:

http://img26.picoodle.com/img/img26/...tm_57fadea.jpg

On the backside, I countersunk it to drop down over the raised edges around the bolt holes in the VC. I also countersunk the backside to accommodate four upwards-facing flat head machine screws, such that they sit flush with the underside of the bar. On top of the bar, I put two nuts down over each screw, to hold it in place and set the height of the COP, and then one acorn nut over each COP holds it in place and provides a stock-like appearance.

I know about the plate...This is the whole reason why i drilled holes and used screws :facepalm:

it looks cleaner then the ugly metal sheet you all use ;)

I'm contemplating my future setup. Might use the jbweld method to fasten the COPs.

Looking forward to your results.

looks good.


it also has the benefit of the COP boot actually covering the spark plug hole, which it does not when you use an aluminum plate like a lot of us do.