HEMI valve cover question -- HELP!!

[jb666]

Ok, when I brought my car over my buddy's shop, he realized right off the bat we were getting some noise thru the valve cover on the passenger's side..

Today he took the valve covers off, expecting to have to make an adjustment.. He was wrong..

The valve covers have small marks where the valve retainers are hitting the cover... You can almost see them here, in the picture I took: (this is the back rear corner of the valve cover, closest to the firewall)



But, it's really bothering me that a brand new crate engine would have any type of clearance issues.. Has anyone ever heard of this??

[superblu72]

How come it looks like the valve cover is dented in? You didn't do any extra beating when you install the plug tubes or anything did you?

[jb666]

How come it looks like the valve cover is dented in? You didn't do any extra beating when you install the plug tubes or anything did you?

That's how it came off the car. We were just as surprised to see that as you are.. They look like they beat the Hell out of the cover, and to be honest, there was nothing in it's way that should have made contact with it..

I'm hoping Mopar Performance knows about this clearance issue and is doing something with replacement covers..

[jb666]

Ok, I spoke to the tech at Mopar Performance for a while today.. He told me that this is/was a known issue, but there's nothing they can do about it because it's 90+ days old.. Basically it's "modify or replace" the valve covers, nothing in between.

[Rob R]

That's a very common problem even back in the day...My old Hemi with steel covers were tin bashed to clear the 1.650 springs.Even after clearanceing the covers I could put my hand on them and feel a tiny movement beneth the covers...

[jb666]

I wish I wasn't such a noob in the world of Mopars, this may not have alarmed me as much as it did... Live and learn.