im an owner of a 1975 buick electra. it has a 455-4 barrel engine. the valve cover on my engine seem to leak, even when i installed new gaskets and sealer. i think the valve covers are warped?? is there a company that sells buick 455 valve covers at an affortable price. i searched everywhere from summit to napa, and found no parts for my buick. here is a pic of my engine, which has 83,000 miles on it. its not a pretty sight. thanks to all that can help me. 75 buick
Did you try Cork gaskets? I've heard leaking problems with the rubber.:TU: TA Performance will have new aluminum covers, I think around $120 a set.:TU:
Make sure if you buy new valve covers that you know if they are tall or stock height. Otherwise you may have interference problems with your A/C top bracket. If you use the tall ones you will probably have to shim the bolt that attaches the A/C top bracket to the intake. No big deal, just something to be aware of. You should be able to straighten the old flanges to get a better seal. Also don't overtorque them as that will cause leaks. Put some Permatex sealer on both sides of the gasket and try the cork ones. They are probably just a little warped from over tightening them and can be fixed without buying a new set of custom valve covers. If you do want a new set, I recommend the T/A Performance ones. You will have to have breather holes machined into the new set as they do not have these provisions. Long story short, on your Electra I would repair the old ones, less hassle since you are not building a street machine! Brian
If your looking for a stock valve cover i have one like the one in the pic. You can have it for $15 and that includes shipping.
One thing I noticed, your dipstick is missing. you are not running without one are you? Brian uzzled:
thanks for the help I thank all of you guys for the help. I am gonna invest in TA performance valve covers. to brian, i had the oil dipstick out just for the photo shoot. i was chaning the oil. about the oil vacum ill check into that. thanks again... 75 buick
Valve covers Your valve covers are almost certainly bent from having the bolts tightened down too much. You can fix this very easily by CAREFULLY straightening them with a tack hammer or similar tool. I use a piece of 3/8 or 1/2" steel bar stock in a vise to back up the gasket flange. Set the cover on the backup metal upside down. Work back and forth tapping the metal down around the bolt holes. Check it often with a straight edge - you are going for a flat, even surface all around the cover. After you are done, you can fasten the new gaskets to the valve cover flange with a little black silicone. I've used both rubber and cork, either one will work. Then HAND TIGHTEN the valve cover bolts with a nut driver - DO NOT crank them down with your 1/2" breaker bar, impact wrench, or whatever! Good luck!
I was just checking on that dipstick. Always trying to help a fellow Buick guy! Remember, you will have to machine some holes in the new covers for the breather and oil cap. Easy to do, use a die grinder with bits for aluminum, they are made to not clog up like the bits for cast iron would when you use them on soft metal. Brian :beer
valve cover hold downs you could try to use tack hammer like someone else mentioned then use chevy long holddown tabs .chrome ones from summit are abot 3 1/2 in long. spreads torque farther over gasket . did with mine with good luck. make sure pcv is working too.andy o No:
Poston also makes a nice set of covers but they take a lot of work to polish them up. A good trick to keep them looking good is to spay them with clearcoat before you install them and it's much easier to keep them clean. Most fo the spray clearcoats are not affected by the high heat as I have gone through several boil overs with no problem. One good side effect of the new covers is that they are quite thick so they make the engine noticable quieter.
