At some point in time, someone painted my 68 Olds 350 red. I am old school and would love to return the engine to the proper gold color, but I also like a bit of chrome. Since the red valve covers were leaking badly, I decided to replace them with chrome.

I bought a set of Mr. Gasket chrome valve covers from Summit, but the chrome looked bad and had many scratches on them. I exchanged them for some Spectre valve covers. The chrome looked good.

I bought Fuel-Pro PermaDry gaskets (VS13403C) which seemed fine, but they came in a small box which deformed them. I laid them out and put heavy boxes on them to try to get them as flat as possible. Following advice I found on here, I used RTV on the valve cover side only, and I used a 1/4" Torque Wrench to tighten them to 7 ft.-lb. starting in the middle and moving outwards and repeating.

The Spectre valve covers deformed even at 7 ft.lb. so I should have realized at this point that it was going to be a problem. As you can guess, the valve covers now leak worse than before.

I may try removing the valve covers, straighten the valve covers and try a rubber gasket. But my question for you is, are ANY aftermarket chrome valve covers any good? Would I be better off chroming the factory valve covers or just clean them up and paint them gold?

 

No

 

FWIW - In the red car we used the EBay generic chrome covers with the grommet holes towards the ends (as opposed to OE middle), never had a leak and if they get waxed once a year seem unlikely to rust. These did get some rust on them after 12 CT winters, 2 of which he had the RF fender liner removed. Grommet location not a big deal, use run of the mill Mr Gasket grommets.

I always like studs & nuts on valve covers with Permadry PLUS 13403T gaskets. VCs have been off perhaps 10-12 times over the years and still on the original gaskets. Unfortunately those gaskets were discontinued years ago but still pop up on eBay occasionally. “T” suffix is the key.

I noticed Summit has some Trans Dapt covers that look nice and have grommets in middle, though they would us the aftermarket grommets. Can’t vouch for them, never saw them before. IIRC someone sells OE style repops.

 

Fusick has repops. $210 for bare steel notched covers

 

Thanks for the gasket recommendation. I definitely think I will try another gasket before I give up on these chrome VCs.

I looked at the TransDapt VCs, and the reviews were bad (rusting, bad chrome, etc.)

 

That is an excellent idea. Their products seem to be pretty good.

Thanks!

 

I had my stockers chromed. Didn't want to have problems with AC bracket clearance.

 

Do you mind me asking how much that cost? I hear that chroming is very expensive these days, and the only good place I can find to do it around here is about 45 minutes away.

 

Just like everything these days, manufacturers are doing everything possible to save on materials. Unfortunately, that means stamping the parts with thinner/lighter steel.

Either find some old school chrome covers made before the cost cutting happened, or spend the money to have factory covers chromed.

 

Buy a good set of valve covers. The $45 chrome ones aren't worth the time to install them.

 

Best I hear, like others have said, is chroming good factories.

 

Here in NJ, where everything is expensive, I got a quote of 200$ PER COVER!!!!!!! Crazy!

 

x2

 

You might look up El Paso Electroplating, Hawkins Blvd, El Paso. I’ve had a friend get a lot of bumpers rechromed there. Suspect it is one of the cheapest places, still in the chroming business.

 

That is insane!

 

Thanks!

 

I'm afraid that my chroming was done years ago, and actually Dick Miller had it done for me. Remember him saying that he was unsatisfied with the first try and had to use another shop to do the job correctly.

 

The Edelbrock signature series were the only ones worth buying, a few years ago anyways. The only way I could get the cheap ones to seal, still didn't fix the rusting issues, was either the now discontinued Petmadry rigid carrier gaskets or Ultrablack or the Right Stuff RTV gluing them down. The Edelbrock or Rocket Racing rigid carrier gaskets might work as well. The chrome thermostat housing is the same deal, except short of JB Weld, they won't seal.

 

I have a pair of NOS (real old stock) Edelbrock chrome covers (that are new in box and maybe 20 years old to sell. I know where they are, but haven't looked at them in a while. Maybe they're un-notched.

 

Chrome don't get ya home

 

LOL.

Yes, you are correct, but it was breaking my heart seeing these Chevy red valve covers every time I opened the hood!

 

I WAS going to keep my mouth shut, but since you brought it up I’ll comment.

Chrome looks good on the outside of cars. Chrome looks good under the hood. Chrome looks best when it’s clean and polished. Keeping chrome under the hood takes entirely too much effort to keep clean. Not enough hours in the day to keep the outside looking good, and underhood.