AAZ valve cover upgrade ???

[truckinwagen]

I am sure an acrylic material could be chosen that would resist the oil.

I got the idea from an article in Diesel Power Magazine, where a sled puller had valve covers with acrylic tops, he didnt have a cam to watch(pushrod motor) but it was cool to see the rockers too.

[stewardc]

We had a set of clear covers on a Chevy drag engine for 3 years. The intake rockers were anodized blue, and the exhausts were anodized red. It was pretty.

[8v-of-fury]

what about if you coated the inside of the acrylic cover with something that would not let the oil stick and dye it? but let it run straight back down?

i mean even taking off a metal cover, there is very little oil residue on the inside of the cover.. they don't stop a huge spalsh of oil, just the little oil that flicks off the cam? Ever run an engine without the cover? not that much oil really sprays out..

should be easy enough to coat it with something.. but what?

[NintendoKD]

instead of using acryllic, one could use a custom cover with a glass window?  that wouldn't get stained, and would resist oil.

[theman53]

I got a hard coat for plastics such as acryllic and polycarbonite. It is the same stuff they use in coating eyeglasses, goggles, or whatever for a scratch resistance. It is basically glass suspended in butyl alcohol...it is expensive but I could get it done...but everything for me is expensive

[truckinwagen]

I have thought about making a fiberglass cover with a glass window, I could even heat and bend the glass, or cut it out of a glass tube to better match the shape of the VC than a flat window.

wouldn't be too hard to make a mold from a stock cover(for the gasket surface and basic shape) and make a fiberglass/carbon cover in whatever style you want.

I might be able to find some pyrex tubing(would want to use borosilicate for heat and vibration resistance, nothing would suck worse than putting a low grade lead glass in and have it break)

or for added coolness factor a bottle of your favorite beverage could be halved(bottles work well, even when made of low grade glass due to their thickness) although if you favorite beverage comes in a dark bottle(as they really should) then you wouldn't be able to see much through it.

-Owen

[truckinwagen]

and great curved pyrex is easy and cheap to get in the form of chemistry beakers

[Rabbit on Roids]

I would love a clear acrylic valve cover.

I have a friend going to school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and he has access to a vacu-form machine.

I am tempted to clean up a valve cover and send it to him to make one out of acrylic, then you could see the cam spin!

-Owen

this would be awesome, but the cam baffle might as well be clear acrylic too. then you can still have the oil protection.

[stewardc]

Hi all. I'm just ressurecting this old thread in the hopes that someone has come up with something to solve my problem. I needs me a pretty valve cover !

[nathan_b]

On old Chrysler engines (slant 6 and 318 ect) the service manual states to adjust the solid lifters with the engine running, valve covers off.... ridiculous in retrospect...

[NintendoKD]

very true, even v-8's of various manufacturing, require lifter adjustment while the engine is running with the valve cover off, you could of course not do this with one of our engines despite any inginius ideas, now what would be interesting is to assess the viability of the eg recirculating inside the upper crankcase , would that stain?  the carbon deposits get absorbed intot the oil somewhat, but what of plexiglass lexan etc?  I agree this sounds awesome, once again, if we get enough interest it would keep costs down, but someone has to be the guinea pig.

[stewardc]

On old Chrysler engines (slant 6 and 318 ect) the service manual states to adjust the solid lifters with the engine running, valve covers off.... ridiculous in retrospect...

That's a very common practice on race engines. I have a set of special clips to go on the rocker arms to redirect oil flow while adjusting the lifters. Often, guys just cut a slot in the top of an old valve cover to allow adjustment without oil everywhere.

[NintendoKD]

yuppers, if said clear covers were accessable like this double brownie points

[gnavs]

Here's a couple shots of my G60 valve cover installed on my AAZ head.  I drilled and tapped but probably should have been a bit more careful to line the holes up.  A drill press probably would have been a better idea too.  I opened up the holes on the cover itself to allow for the discrepancies in my work