The Dodge Challenger Message Board

Hi Guys,
It seems straight forward enough to do this but Im sure there a couple of pointers or tips I could use- any suggestions??

Ive got the new gaskets aswell.

Thanks in advance.

You do this with your eyes closed... Just make sure you got nice, clean surfaces before mounting gaskets. and spread out the pressure on the valve cover when you tighten the bolts.

Use some solvent on a piece of cotton to clean up surfaces. A putty knife can be a help to remove old gaskets.

Old covers like valvecovers, oilpans etc. you can check that steel around boltholes are straight and in line with the rest of the covers edge, that these bolt areas not are below rest of the cover edges(down to heads) or else it may be that you dont get cover tight enough to seal... if so, just put the covers upside down, use a hammer and knock a little easy with something to straighten out the areas around the holes a bit... (maybe a bit upwards (from the heads)

(this is rare do, but its easy to check. just hard to explain it in english)

Red, what kind of gaskets are you using? Lately, I like the no-sealer rubber coated gaskets. They dont use any messy sealer and seal like a vault. They are simply steel rubber coated valve cover gaskets made by Fel-Pro. If however, you are using the old style cork/rubber gaskets then 3m weather strip adhesive sealer is a good choice in sealing them up. Jimiboy has some good tips on keeping the flanges straight. Have you thought about the cast aluminum MoPar Perf. valve covers? They seal much better than the stamped steel covers but dont look anything like the stock stamped steel ones. MoPar also makes heavy gauge chrome but some dont like the flashy chrome,(me included).

I always stick the gasket to the valve cover with silicon (wait for it to dry first).

It makes it much easier to install them.

Rubber or rubber coated gaskets every time. Mine are 100% indestructible rubbery stuff. Will last forever.

Dude....Im sure we are related..ha ha...The gaskets I selected are
Fel-Pro ..and the new covers I bought are the black mopar performance ones..I also got Fel-Pro Manifold gaskets..

airfuelEddie wrote:Red, what kind of gaskets are you using? Lately, I like the no-sealer rubber coated gaskets. They dont use any messy sealer and seal like a vault. They are simply steel rubber coated valve cover gaskets made by Fel-Pro. If however, you are using the old style cork/rubber gaskets then 3m weather strip adhesive sealer is a good choice in sealing them up. Jimiboy has some good tips on keeping the flanges straight. Have you thought about the cast aluminum MoPar Perf. valve covers? They seal much better than the stamped steel covers but dont look anything like the stock stamped steel ones. MoPar also makes heavy gauge chrome but some dont like the flashy chrome,(me included).

You will need longer bolts than stock with these cast covers. They are 1/4-inch UNC and you need them 1-inch long.

Some stainless with hex socket heads look nice.

Depending on your heads you may have leaks or not. Cast iron heads were casted not very precisly so the surface on the valve cover side is not perfect. Stock valve covers that are metal ones can sit on this rough surface because they can deform little bit, when i have instaled mopar performance black Al covers always i had oil leaks, solution was to make the surface of the heads when engine was disassembled, now i have only rubber gasket no silicon and no oil leaks. Keep fighting and you will see no oil on your engine!!

I couldnt put the New Mopar performance covers on because I had no where to connect the hosing from the air breather like with the old covers, so I just put on the new gaskets with the old valve covers, it will do for the moment I guess, I just want to get her running.

Oh yes. By the way. You have to drill out the holes.....Oops! Too late.