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Im debating on purchasing Ford Racing Valve Covers to dress up my engine.. is it hard to replace them? im going to assume its time consuming. Im going to guess you need to drain the oil before you take the stock ones off? not too sure how this works.. any one do this before? pics? and any tips?
I replaced the driver side valve cover gasket yesterday. You could easily have that one swapped in an hour or so tops. The passenger side will take some time though, as you have to remove the intake manifold because it hangs over it. The oil doesn't need to be drained.
Replacing the valve covers is about a whole day job. All morning for the passenger side cover because you need to remove the intake, about an hour or so to do the driverside and the rest of the day to stand back and admire them.
I'll add my .02 . When you do your valve covers, <b>USE THE RUBBER GASKETS!</b> I had to replace mine on my truck and found out the reason they were leaking was because the gasket was cork!
If installed properly, there's not a thing wrong with cork gaskets. However, I'll also recommend rubber gaskets, simply because they are much more user friendly, especially to the first timer. Just pay attention to the bolt torques when reinstalling the valve covers so that the new gasket doesn't get squished out from over-torque. If you are getting the stamped steel chrome valve covers, I would recommend getting those load spreaders to put under the bolts on the lower side. A couple of the bolts pinched holes in my valve covers, which caused a leak.
I have chrome ford motorsport valve covers on my truck, with some pictures in my gallery if you want to know how they look. There aren't any close-ups, and they are pretty dirty.