(Oh good - another reason to stop cleaning! )

Yes, I could do that. I'll be powder-coating about 6 other things then anyway as I'm going to do away with the red. So, I could easily PC them. However, both of them have attaching points on them that I don't need/want, and at least the passenger's side one has seen better days. Here's a shot with a spotlight showing up the dents, which would be made much more visible if the covers were a shiny finish than the current dull gray.

I think for $60 the Eddys would look a lot better. But, what say all y'all?

 

Not to take away from the valve cover and air cleaner discussion, but I've made another discovery. I was scouting out where to run the fuel lines to keep them as far from the headers as possible and discovered this on the driver's side perch. And the head of that bolt says "8.8", which my calc's say is about equal to a Grade 5.




Then I looked a bit further and found this, still on the same perch.



So, there are 3 bolts where there should be 5. But two of them are G8's and one is sorta a G5 - but with a spacer that may be thin-wall tubing. And, as Jim pointed out, there are no washers. In fact, on the first picture you can see where the head of what was probably a rivet set for years against the perch. Given that, there's certainly less than 1/2 of the clamping force the factory thought the perch needed. Oh well, I can easily fix that with the engine out.

And, by the way, at the top of the pic above you can easily see two other problems that I've shown previously. First, the two pieces of tubing that appear to be almost touching the header are the fuel lines. But, the pic is deceptive as there's about 1/2" of clearance.

Second, just left of the "knee" of the closer of the two fuel lines is where the header is against the perch.

 

I still like Blue Thunder's unlabeled ribbed aluminum valve covers in wrinkle black.
Mustangs Unlimited has them for around $320.

 

I'm not much for advertising via air cleaners or valve covers. My vote would be to rehab a good set of originals, or get some Ford Motorsport covers.

But - it's your truck, so do what you think is best. The Eddys are cheap enough for sure.

 

Yes, I remember that discussion about a 400. And, it applies to 460's I see.

Well, you bring up a good point. I had intended to use one of the larger factory air cleaners I have on Big Blue, but forgot. That way it'll get warm air in the winter and cooler air in the summer, although I'll have to rig a way to get hot air off the header.

So, that would mean I'll have a black base and aluminum top, and could carry that theme over to the valve covers. One approach would be to do the base of the air cleaner in black wrinkle and have matching valve covers. But, I'll have to learn how to do wrinkly powder coating.

Or, I could do smooth black on both and sand the top of Ford Motorsports like I did for Dad's. Hmmm. You guys are helping. Thanks!

 

You seem to have plenty of red highlights going on there in the engine bay.

Maybe a Testarossa treatment could tie it all together?

 

Gary, my perches are bolted on, I don't have any pictures of them I can find. If you need them I can take some later (Darth is getting a new right inner tie rod and alignment). Bolts might help with the header clearance.

Valve covers do not look like the correct ones, they should have a place to attach the air pipes for the exhaust.



Note studs on valve cover to stabilize the air manifold and air plumbing.

 

Jim - That's a thought. And maybe a Red Head steering box? But I sorta doubt I could get the exhaust to sound right to carry off the Testarossa theme. So, I'm gonna do the black-out treatment on the red highlights. Hmmm, maybe do black wrinkle on that stuff to match an air cleaner and valve covers?

Bill - I suspect these are salvage yard purchases since they have "460" written on them with a paint pen. I'm not sure why the change, but there's a picture somewhere of the engine on a stand with "fabricated" valve covers. Perhaps they were too tall and wouldn't fit under the A/C compressor? Given that, I should check out the clearance before deciding what covers to order.

As for the perches, I don't think I need pictures, but thanks. These are in the right places, but just don't have all the fasteners they are supposed to have. So, with the engine out I'll pull the perches, blast and and powder coat them, and put them back with G8 fasteners, washers, etc.

Speaking of that, do y'all think that placing a 1/4" plate on top of both perches would be the way to get clearance for the headers? As Bill pointed out, because of the angle I won't get but about 1/8" of additional height, but I can also dent the header at that point. Will that be enough?

 

My perches have teardrop shaped holes for the motor mounts.

I do agree that properly bolting them may help with the engine 'listing'.
Given the current metric bolts, reaming to fractional holes should tighten things up considerably.

Not sure how the geometry of spacers would affect the ability of the motor mounts to fit in the perches at all

 

I think mine are teardropped as well. And, looking at the above pic it appears that 1/4" is about all I can do and still have the retaining nuts have full thread engagement. But I need to measure that.

And, while I'm measuring I think I'll also measure the width between the perches and their angle(s), and draw it up on CAD. That way I can figure out what will happen with spacers.

But, I hadn't thought about the perch sagging. Good point. The two bolts that are missing are the ones that would pull the perch up tight to the crossmember, so without them it has to be drooping some. I suppose I could loosen the retaining nuts, raise the engine slightly to take the load off the perch, slip bolts in those holes, and cinch it up tight to see what happens. But, that sounds like work, and I doubt it will raise it enough to get the clearance needed, so I think that will just be icing on the cake.

 

Gary, while you are peeling your onion, do you have the small heat shield under the A/C casing? It sits sideways to shield the fuel pump harness from the exhaust heat?






If not, I still have the one I took off Darth.

 

What I meant by geometry is that by adding spacers the motor mount studs may not fit down into the teardrop holes at all unless you added the spacers to the mounts, not the perches.
​​​​​​​
I'd imagine the diagonal of your 1/4" plate is going to be almost 3/8.
Hypotenuse of a square is 1.4142, so if the face is 45°......

This is simply the reverse of milling an intake when you deck the heads.

 

Bill - Thanks for the offer, but I do happen to have that heat shield.

Jim - You are right. I was thinking the wrong-way 'round. Turns out that a .250" spacer gives .350" lift, as shown below. (Actually it should be .3535" if you multiply the square-root of 2 times .250, but my drawing wasn't quite that accurate.) So, a .1875" (3/16") spacer will give .265" lift.

Does that seem like it would be enough? Hope so because I have about .200+" of mount stud sticking out past the nut. And, by the way, it looks like the mount studs are close to the bottom of the teardrop-shaped slots, so they can easily go up. See the pic at the bottom.

 

I really can't tell how much room you need to get your header up off the crossmember. (Phone screen is not ideal for viewing posts)

I'm going to assume the shape of the hole is to make it easier to drop the engine in... from about 8'
Then accurately locate it as the mounts bottom and wedge under the weight
If you were to shim only one side you would get rotation -and- lift, but again don't know if that would be helpful.
Depending on where the header is hitting relative to the mounting axis on the opposite side and the distance between perches, 1/4" lift on the problematic side might equate to 3/8" or more at the collector.

 

Gary, if the damn header installation was as well done as the other work, there shouldn't be a fit problem. You have all Vernon's documentation do you not? I would see what brand of headers they are (now you know why I do not want them on Darth) and contact the manufacturer about the clearance issue, they may have been bent during installation. If that is the case, with the engine out and on a stand (provided you have one healthy enough for an 865# weight) see if putting a strap across the lower portion to pre-load them than heat the upper bends red hot to allow them to take a set in the direction needed.