CJ valve cover

longshot · #1 (**permalink**) 06-12-2006, 11:33 PM

Has anyone put the aftermarket aluminum valve cover on their 4.2L? I am having problems with mine. I also had the doors apart to put new lock cylinders in them, and they were working fine. Now when I try to get in the drivers door it's like the linkage is jammed and I cant open the door. If I could get it open I know I can fix it, but nothing is going my way right at the moment.

jay79cj7 · #2 (**permalink**) 06-12-2006, 11:38 PM

What year, what is your problem? I had a 79 258 with a badly leaking, warped, beat up, multiple flaking layers of different color paint and rust cover a couple years back. I saw one of those fancy chrome ones on ebay for like 25 bucks or so, and figured that might be easier to get to seal since I was sick of screwing with the old one. It didn't have the right clearance to fit the rockers and never did fit right.

longshot · #3 (**permalink**) 06-12-2006, 11:50 PM

Mine is an 85 cj7 with the 258-6cyl. The new cover is nice, but the holes are not lining up right. My stock plastic cover was broken at the back. In the instructions for the new one they say you have to drill out the two blind holes on the drivers side of the head (that are unthreaded and sit under the original valve cover) and thread them 5/16x 18. Thats fine, but I drilled the front one too deep and went into the water jacket. That's easy enough to fix (although highly dissapointing). But the stock retainers that thread down onto the head bolts and hold the valve cover down, do not touch my new cover. So now if I plug the hole I screwed up, there is nothing on that area of the cover to hold it down right. I thought of making a 5/16 stud and plugging the hole, then having it go to 1/4 on top and just putting a nut on it to hold the valve cover down. This wont work either cause the clearance is so tight that a nut wont start on the threads of the stud and be able to be tightened by anything.

Laph · #4 (**permalink**) 06-13-2006, 01:23 AM

sounds like it's time to drain the water out of the moter, get some jb weld fill in the hole, let sit then re drill and tap. may want to drill little bigger and use heli coil for solid hold if the jb weld don't hold the threads to well, but i have not had problems with tapping it before, but u never know there is always a first.

Laph · #5 (**permalink**) 06-13-2006, 01:24 AM

well guess that is if you don't have access to a nice mig welder

longshot · #6 (**permalink**) 06-13-2006, 02:31 AM

I was unsure if JB weld was strong enough or not, and I do have access to a welder. Thanks for the suggestions.

wm69 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-14-2006, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by longshot

Mine is an 85 cj7 with the 258-6cyl. The new cover is nice, but the holes are not lining up right. My stock plastic cover was broken at the back. In the instructions for the new one they say you have to drill out the two blind holes on the drivers side of the head (that are unthreaded and sit under the original valve cover) and thread them 5/16x 18. Thats fine, but I drilled the front one too deep and went into the water jacket. That's easy enough to fix (although highly dissapointing). But the stock retainers that thread down onto the head bolts and hold the valve cover down, do not touch my new cover. So now if I plug the hole I screwed up, there is nothing on that area of the cover to hold it down right. I thought of making a 5/16 stud and plugging the hole, then having it go to 1/4 on top and just putting a nut on it to hold the valve cover down. This wont work either cause the clearance is so tight that a nut wont start on the threads of the stud and be able to be tightened by anything.

Can't you just put some lock tite on a bolt and screw it down in there? Looks like if you seal the threads you'd stop a leak from occuring there. I had to take a small round file and slightly enlarge the front and rear holes to get the bolt holes to line up. I got slightly shorter bolts than the ones that came with the valve cover so I didn't have to do any drilling; just tapped the two existing holes on the drivers side of the head.

longshot · #8 (**permalink**) 06-15-2006, 02:22 PM

Yeah, I decided to use 1/4" hardware instead of taking all the bolts to 5/16" like they recommend. I also used the round file trick to get my holes to line up. I am thinking that I will put a stud in the hole that I overdrilled, because then I can get it tight and leave it alone. But the problem is that there is not clearance to start a nut on the stud, so I will have to make something custom I guess. I kind of thought that for the money they want for these parts that they would work and not need so much modification(not including my OOOPS!!).