I was recently judged in wildwood, NJ and the judges said I had the wrong valve covers, I have the stamped steel ones with the little welded brackets on the uppper side. I've been to a lot of junk yards and looked at a lot of 79 Impalas, Camaros and trucks with the small block, and every one of them had the little brackets welded on. How the heck am I going to find a correct set of covers? Also the judging manual doesn't say a word about the brackets, whether they are on a corvette or not. What do you think? No one vendor reproduces the covers. Thanks for your imput.
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Re: 79 Valve covers
Assuming you've got an L48 (stamped steel covers) they should have no welded brackets. So...judges got it right...and that's why the manual does not address it. I had my 78 L48 today and waited to see how the wires are wrapped before responding.
The rationale is that the distributor shield is used to tuck the wires away from the covers and uses a wire organizer cloaked by the shield. Wires then run downward to the heat shields. Hope this helps.Tom Russo
78 SA NCRS 5 Star Bowtie78 Pace Car L82 M2100 MY/TR/Conv -
Re: 79 Valve covers
Tom and Jim------
While the steel covers with the spot-welded-on brackets were used on many other Chevrolet cars of the period, they were not used in PRODUCTION on Corvettes. They were, however, supplied as the SERVICE-replacement valve covers for Corvettes for many years.
In general, unused brackets are a "no-no" for PRODUCTION (but, there are exceptions). However, GM considers them fine for SERVICE. In that manner they are able to consolidate part numbers so that a single part can SERVICE a wider array of applications. Applications which require the brackets must have them on the SERVICE part; applications which don't require them aren't negatively affected if the brackets are there (except for the purposes of Corvette restoration purists which is not a particular concern of GMSPO).In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: 79 Valve covers
Thanks Joe and Tom, I'll just have to keep looking. these are not correct and never will be. Thanks again.Comment
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Re: 79 Valve covers
Jim:
What Joe is saying is that they are correct for service replacement. However, they were not provided as they left the factory...either way they are correct...but earn a point deduction when judged in top flight judging/Tom Russo
78 SA NCRS 5 Star Bowtie78 Pace Car L82 M2100 MY/TR/ConvComment
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Couldn't you just...
take a Dremel tool and grind off the offending brackets? Sounds to me like a good rainy day project.Comment
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Re: Spot welded brackets
joe In 73-75 all L-48 corvettes have welded brackets and their is more than one style. The brackets are used for the TCS solinoid wire and the Quadrajet solinoid wire in 73. LyleLyle
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Re: Couldn't you just...
Dave Those spot welds would be hard to hide with paint and I see lots of the covers with no brackets at swap meets.Lyle
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Re: Spot welded brackets
Lyle------
I don't think that these are the brackets that are the issue here. I believe that after 1975 used these small brackets, too. These are usually spot-welded to the intake manifold side of the cover. I believe that the brackets decribed here are the 2 much larger brackets spot welded to the top of the valve cover. For non-Corvette applications these brackets are used to secure air cleaners or other engine compartment hardware.In Appreciation of John HinckleyComment
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Re: Spot welded brackets
Joe 73-75 Corvettes used the large brackets spot weled to the top and side of both covers. In 73 they are spaced outside the hole and are wider apart than on 74-75. I know this as I bought a set of NOS covers with the small spacing at a swap meet and later checked out the application to sll them. I am sure you can tell me when the L-48 covers changed by part number as you seem to have this type of information. I feel that the original question Corvette needs plain covers NO brackets. LyleLyle
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Re: Couldn't you just...
The brackets are quite well welded on. You may as well distroy the valve covers if I took a cold chisel and tried to wack them off?Comment
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Re: Couldn't you just...
Jim I see the covers you need at swap meets or I could check a local yard for them as I been waiting for a nice day to go parts hunting. I looked thru my extra parts and have no plain covers. LyleLyle
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Re: Couldn't you just...
Sure thing, Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated !Comment
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