[BassMaster5000]

Anyone know what valve covers will clear 1.7 roller rockers/holley systemax intake on a 302? I'm looking for valve covers with holes so I can run open breathers, but I'm having one hell of a time trying to find a set that fits, not to mention its getting to be a pain in the ass to keep pulling them off to put others on and seeing they don't fit. Thanks.

[1988 convertible]

get an intake plenum spacer and then just buy some cheap tall valve covers. sorted.

[Timm10221]

Be careful though cause to big of a spacer will cause manifold to hood clearance issues... I think the Holley intake mani is a little taller then the Trick flow.. I would do a search for that before I bought a spacer.. unless you have a cowl hood the

[nolife]

I don't have an answer but I feel your pain.
The Holley hangs extremely close to the driver side valve cover (maybe 1/8 inch gap), anything bigger than stock valve cover won't fit. Holley suggests never using a upper/lower spacer and they don't make one but other companies do, the ears for the mounting bolts on the manifold can break off if you are not careful and if everything is not completely true and flat. The Holley is also very tall, even without a spacer and poly engine mounts, the metal vac nipple on my TB put a dent in my hood. I guess with some combination of lower height engine mounts and maybe a small plenum spacer, you might be able to find some valve cover that fits and keep it all under the stock hood.

[Timm10221]

^^ Wow, I didn't know that... I knew it was a taller Intake though... Would he be able to know out the baffle in the stock Valve covers and clear with the 1.7rr... Is it a stock cam?

[71mustang351]

Sweet car. +++

[71mustang351]

Sweet car. ++

[71mustang351]

Sweet car. +++v

[BULLET20XD]

Ive cut the baffle out of the stock VC and had to grind on it at the ends to keep 1 and 5 RAs from rubbing. I also drilled the bolt holes out a bit larger so they would move and i could adjust that way also. Summit has a set of Ford Racing aluminum VC on sale with the breather holes hes wanting. May want to look into them?

[BassMaster5000]

Ended up picking up the Ford Racing valve covers. Put them on the car with a one inch plenum spacer, and everything fits... (I have a Cobra R hood, but if I didn't there is no way it would fit)

When I went to the new valve covers, I plugged my PCV valve in back, capped the vacuum line on my TB, and ran dual open air breathers. Now my ignition timing has been off a little due to a bad distributor stick, but it was running well..(Well enough to suck the headlights out of a C5 Z06) When I went to start the car, nothing. Cranked, started for a second, and died. I went to restart the car, gave it some gas, same thing. I checked to make sure my vacuum "port" on throttle body was capped, and it was. Tried it a third time, this time with throttle in one hand, distributor in the other, to see if I could adjust the ignition timing enough to get it running. It ran for a couple seconds, struggling to stay alive, with a deep thud and awful being admitted. I immediately killed it, checking and rechecking everything, and there is nothing I could see wrong.. Any ideas? I thought it might be a vacuum leak, but I don't know where it would be. Could it be my tune is that far off? Maybe the problem is switching from PCV to open air breathers? Thanks.

[horsepowerjunkie]

This probably won't cure your running problem, but you definatly want a working PCV on the motor. With just breathers there is just not enough suction to evac the crank case properly. You will end up with excess crank case pressure in the engine and oil seals will start leaking, etc. The problem with open breathers and a pcv, is that you are sucking unmetered air into the engine. Idealy your breather should have a hose that goes into the intake piping after the mass air meter.

[nolife]

My guesses in order
- I assume you had the dizzy out to put the lower on. Did not put the dizzy with rotor in the right orientation when you put it back on.
- Some plug is not tight or connected like the FI and or 10 pin connectors in the back of the manifold.
- You have some massive vac leak between the upper/lower and spacers or against the heads or something. If it was just a vac line or your PVC or breather setup, it would stumble and putter but it should still run.

What did you do for the passenger side lower gasket? There are two different types of Systemax intakes, old and new and they had either an internal EGR or external EGR line. Did you block that hole in the head with the gasket or are you using it?

[BassMaster5000]

For your guesses, I didn't pull the dizzy out, because the only thing that I changed were the valve covers. I already had the upper and lower on there, I was just switching to different valve covers. Before I switched valve covers and pulled the upper intake manifold, the car was running fine. It's once I added the spacer and valve covers with breathers that things went down hill. Today I took out the drivers side breather, put back in the oil filler cap with hose to top of intake manifold, and hooked my PCV valve back up to my throttle body. Tried to start the car and the exact same reaction. As for my EGR valve, my tuner had, for lack of a better way to say this, "turned it off" last time I was there, so I'm not using it. I did not pull the lower intake manifold either.