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Moss alloy valve cover installation

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ceedub

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I have purchased a Moss alloy valve cover and the polished brass crested nuts to install on my '73 'B My problem is that the nuts are too short. It would appear that the holes in the alloy cover are about 1/2" higher than the original cover.
I was thinking that maybe I should replace the front and rear studs with longer ones. If that is the solution, can I replace each one without undoing all the head bolts and rocker nuts as well or does that foul up the load on the rockers. Or, is there some other magic that I haven't thought of. Surely this must be a problem for everyone installing one of these alloy covers.
Thanks,

ceedub
 
Does it fit without a valve cover gasket? If so, the gasket may be too thick. Have you contacted Moss about this?
 
It would probably fit without the gasket. Currently the top of the stud is about 1/2" below the hole in the cover and the nut is 1/2" long. The gasket is about 1/4" thick but I have not seen one thinner. The gasket on the alloy cover is not indented into a sleeve like the original cover so I suppose that also raises the cover some more. I will contact my Moss agent here in BC on Monday and get their ideas. I notice that Moss does sell a long chromed nut for these alloy covers so maybe that is the best approach but I do like the brass nuts with the MG crest.
 
When I put the alloy cover on mine I had to cut the rubber gaskets for the thumb screws down quite a bit for it to work. This was with the stock cork gasket.
 
I tried the brass nuts on my standard cover and found them to be very soft and I went back to the ugly nuts that worked better.
 
I had the same problem. I used the original nut gaskets off the old cover rather than the ones supplied with the new cover. It was a struggle, but went on. Phone a friend for help.
 
If you approach Moss about this problem, I'm sure they will try to figure it out. They are very good about trying to correct problems with items they sell.
 
I wrote to the local Moss dealer here in BC and their recommendation was to raise the front and rear studs enough to enable the brass nuts to grab and that removing one stud at a time without loosening all the other rocker hold downs was OK. That or replace the studs with longer ones. I remember having a problem locally finding those longer front and rear studs and had to rely on the local MG parts dealer. I have also written to Moss. They apparently have not seen the problem before and indicated that the only question about the alloy valve cover is related to the venting. They said that they would assemble an MG head and check it out and get back to me. I'm anticipating their response.

ceedub
 
And I will bet that Moss will have a fix as well.
 
The advice that I have been given is to replace the studs with a longer version. Apparently the brass nuts are not compatible with the alloy cover and existing studs because of the short length of the nut. So I'm off locally to find a longer set of studs or at least one that I can cut some more threads into to fix the problem. Probably easier to use the extra long chrome nuts displayed in the catalog and give up on the brass altogether.
 
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