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valve cover

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bigbadbluetr6

bigbadbluetr6

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Is an Aluminum valve good or bad? Vic British has one for sell for a hundred bucks and i'm just wondering if an aluminum one is good or bad. The one they have has a breather on it. is a breather a good or bad thing and what is it. alright thanks people
 
Cast aluminum valve covers are purty. They don't seal any better than stock covers. I doubt that they have a breather on them. What you might see is the oil fill cap on the top, as well as the vacumn outlet on the side. You need some positive ventilation on the valve cover, mine sucks from the 3 carbs, through an oil seperator and back into the sump. Some guy in Fla manufactures a solid billet valve cover with recessed oil gasket. Work of art and probably worth more than some cars. Again, all cast covers are pretty much made by the same manufacterer and none have vents. You live in Kansas and you probably know that getting any info from VickyBrit is virtually impossible. Something about liability law. Good vendor, zero tech advice.

Bill
 
The aluminum valve covers are also a little more rigid, so if you accidentally overtighten the nuts or bolts you're less likely to crush and distort it like steel. Also, lots of alloy valve covers have fins cast into them, which look real nice. The "technical" reason behind the fins is that they are supposed to dissipate heat more quickly, but I doubt the effect is quantifiable. Some of the nicest covers I've seen are with the cover body done in crinkle finish back paint, and the raised fins and lettering (if any) polished bare aluminum. Those are sweet, and I think Moss sells one like that for the TR's, it's says triumphtune on it or something. You could probably do that yourself with a bare aluminum cover if you've got some patience with the masking tape and an exacto knife and a good quality high heat crinkle finish paint, like what Eastwood sells.
 
I suppose one difference may be that they make the valve train sound quieter... but on the TRactor engine at least I like to hear the valves -- that's how I know they're not too tight.
 
That about sums it up - they look better and are stiffer. The cap that came with mine (Moss part, black) has a vent hole, but it's a tiny thing. All the "venting" goes to the carbs. If you get one of these you will definitely want to install a small sheet metal baffle over the hole to limit the entrainment of splash oil - otherwise your oil consumption will become quite high. Especially if you have the external oil feed line.
 
Eric, go over to Victoria and hold one in your hand. They are quite nice, do have a vent outlet, and as mentioned above, are quite good at diminishing the valve train noise. The one I selected is black and has no goofy writing on it. I changed because the original was so distorted from years of over tightening, that it looked as bad as it leaked. That is now all in the past.
 
Go for it Eric (they add 3 HP /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif) and accomplish all that the others have mentioned. I have a TriumpTune cover and am very pleased with it. I did route the brake booster hose to the battery bracket and had to hand-cut a cover gasket using thin cork sheet. Reassemble with a skim coat of Hylomar. There are no gaskets you can buy (the stock TR gasket is too thick).

There was a gentleman in Florida who was selling unique CNC covers: check his out at https://web.tampabay.rr.com/tr6tech/index.html
 
If your '73 has an EGR gadget, mind the location of the vent tube in the valve cover as it may have interference with the EGR valve. (I no longer have an EGR valve and the polished aluminum valve cover looks great.)
 
[ QUOTE ]
There was a gentleman in Florida who was selling unique CNC covers: check his out at https://web.tampabay.rr.com/tr6tech/index.html

[/ QUOTE ]

Rick,

Received the following email on January 5th from Jim regarding these valve covers:

"Don,

Sorry for the long delay returning your e-mail.

At this time I do not have inventory or firm pricing on the Valve Covers.

Keep checking back often as hope to go into production soon.

Best regards,

Jim Swarthout"

Apparently he made a prototype and that was it??? I really like the clean and simple look of the one he has and would like to get one. I still have a few months and tons of other items to finish on the car to make the July deadline so I will keep checking. . . . .

If anyone else has better info, please post it.

Don
 
I have a nice TR6 alloy cover,pretty rare. Its a SAH [Sidney A Hurrell]black crackle with flip up oil filler cap. He was the official TR tuning shop for Triumph when they closed down thier racing dept. The "goofy" writing that says triumphtune is his son who took over the Biz. Although I dont know if they actually make the cover any more. About the cover I have, its nice but very 60s brit quality casting.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Apparently he made a prototype and that was it???

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm know one person who bought the cover--Ryan Miles of Buckeye Triumphs. There may be more, and I'm sure Don would give you their names if you asked. At the time Jim was marketing the covers, I believe he was in the midst of divorce proceedings and that put him into pause mode for some time. His real claim to fame were the very affordable CNC roller rockers that he'd fab to any desired ratio. A very talented machinist with some heavy equipment investments. Some folks (mostly TR 6Packer's) had problems /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gifpurchasing items from Jim and there is some (much?) animosity between them. But the O-ringed valve cover sure is a beauty and priced affordably.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Some folks (mostly TR 6Packer's) had problems /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gifpurchasing items from Jim and there is some (much?) animosity between them.

[/ QUOTE ]
If you are interested in "the rest of the story," search on 'Swarthout' in the 6Pack forums.
 
Hayfever,

All I know for sure is what I have seen on his website. Have you tried to contact Jim directly?

I am going to keep trying to get ahold of him every few months to try and get one of those valve covers, I really like the way they look.

Don
 
Yeah, I've seen those too. They're only 1.5:1 ratio though... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif IIRC the factory is 1.45:1. Jim offered 1.75:1 (only for use with a stock camshaft), 1.65:1, 1.6:1, 1.55:1, and 1.5:1. Using the Wayback Machine I found these archives of his page, including this page talking about how he designed them.

I read the 6-pack archives too. It reminds me of what goes on over on the MSEFI forum sometimes with a guy who puts together parts kits of everything needed to build a MegaSquirt. When orders get heavy it may take 6-8 weeks to get your kit. However, any time spent on the PC answering emails is time not making kits, so people get pissy when he doesn't answer immediately. Not saying the 6-pack people are wrong, just realizing the tendency of the lack of personal contact (even over the phone) to exascerbate a problem.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Yellowdog: I emailed him, but no response yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

It took about 2 weeks for him to get back to me about the valve covers. You might want to take a look at the 6 pack forum as Rick O. mentioned. There was one guy that was not real happy about the quality of the rockers he bought through Swarthout. (EDIT - Sorry, did not read your last post /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif)

Don
 
Well i went ahead and bought the valve cover from Vic British. Its going to make my engine compartment look awesome. My question is what kind of gasket do i use? I was talking to maddog last night and he said a neoprene gasket so i need to know if thats good and if so where do i get one at? I was looking at the web a little bit and found a 50 foot long roll of neoprene gasket tape. So i'm not sure what to do so let me know what you think.
 
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