With the 9 fin valve covers on the early FI cars, were both sides cut, or just the side that had interference problems? I have an early VIN fuelie with 9 fin and neither side is cut so I'm curious.
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Re: Unrestored original milled 9 fin valve cover
Randy, Just the drivers side cut for the air meter clearance. I believe the JM spells this out as far as cuts and no cuts. John -
Re: Cut out 9 rib valve cover
Randy..the cut out 9 fin cover was used to clear the bottom edge of the air meter...so the drivers side valve cover could be removed with the FI assembly in place.
Normally the passenger side did not have or need the cut out cover.
I suppose it is possible that some cars did not have the cut out 9 rib cover on the drivers side..but I would expect that to be an exception. Lets say a car that was born as a carburated car..but was changed to a fuelie.
I own the 57 Nassau/Daytona racecar and it has the original cut out valve cover on the drivers side and the non cut valve cover on the passenger side. Interestingly..the sister race car to mine..which is still missing..shows in a vintage GM photo to have had a cut out valve cover on the passnger side..( I have no explanation for that ).
Joe TrybulecComment
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Re: Cut out 9 rib valve cover
vin 1093, a 250 hp powerglide, lacks the cut-out. mikeComment
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Re: Cut out 9 rib valve cover
Mike..thats why one should never say never!
JoeComment
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Re: Cut out 9 rib valve cover
We have owner history back to the 1970's and as far as we can tell it's always been a fuelie. That doesn't mean the valve covers weren't replaced, though.Comment
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Re: Cut out 9 rib valve cover
Randy...my guess would be that the existing supply of non milled 9 fin valve covers were used up..regardless of the FI clearance problem.
I was told..by the chief inspector of the St.Louis Corvette plant ( 1953-@1970 ) that parts in the parts bin were used until identified as obsolete by engineering.
I speculate the same was true at Flint.
Until we discover..documents that better explain what took place..we only have the cars themselves to study.
Each year..we lose more unrestored cars..to restoration..and their window to history.
If I had an early car that I believed to be a fuelie and it had non milled 9 fin valve covers..I would not change them to a milled cover just to be consistant with the crowd.
There is a well documented 1957 air box car..that was changed over to a two four barrel set up before it left the St.Louis plant. I would suspect..they did not change the valve covers..which would mean a carburated car having a drivers side milled valve cover...in theory.
I have always advocated leaving the anomaly that exists on a car alone..until evidance is provided to the contrary in the life of and history of that car. It could mean losing judging points..but do we really want all cars to fit in the same box?
JoeComment
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Re: Cut out 9 rib valve cover
Joe:
Ours is VIN 3367 which I believe means it had an April 1957 assembly date. I think that would be early enough for 9 fin valve covers, but I'm certainly not going to get out the grinder to make one of them "correct."
While I'd like to switch the three speed transmission for a four, that's just another part of the car that must be retained in order for it to be original, and that's what we want out of our car.
The engine pad discussion is an interesting one in that the concensus is 50/50 on ours, too. I wonder how many people in the block department while grabbing the gang stamps thought "I better get this right, or in 50 years some NCRS judge will bounce it and take points away."
Randy
RandyComment
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