Valve Cover Install Trick

[AmericanSavage]

This might be known my most, but I had a leak from the rear of my covers on my 80 F350. So, I took to getting them off, cleaning them up, and repainting.

The first one I put on was tedious in that I let the ultra black hold the fel-pro gasket, and then put it on—it took some finagling to get the holes lined up.

Then, I thought, why not use snap ups upside down? I used a size bigger—5/16—because the threads would hold the gasket in place. Then I could unscrew the snapup and the gasket would not have shifted.

Well, it worked. It was a snap to get the bolts in. I still used ultra black on the cover side, but the snaps made everything line up nicely.

[mat in tn]

good thinking.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, good idea!

[viven44]

Nice tip! Good to know a snap-up can be used for this.
And what kind of gasket material did you use ?

I’ve always followed the factory procedure for cork gasket which wants you torque the bolts to certain inch pounds (I do about half of that to be safe)

Then you wait 5 mins (presumably to help drive the air out of the cork gasket and let it shrink)

Then come back and Torque the bolts again. Should be leak free.

I’ll need to find this awesome YouTube video from Richard at precision transmission where he describes his way on cork gaskets. Even transmission pans don’t need any gasket maker with “the” procedure. Dry install always per Richard.

On my latest build on the 460 I used a rubber gasket as it comes with the ears to affix the gasket in the stock valve covers, it worked well.

Edit:

Here is the video from Richard, around the 42:00 minute mark you can see it. Its been a while since I watched it but he explains it and makes it sound simple but there is some wisdom in those words!
https://youtu.be/IlkdW1Mrgpc?si=Ke_H-jnkEsT_fc5d