I blew my head gasket and got all that taken care of with fire rings and studs. After i got everything all together and drove it home the valve covers were leaking pretty bad. I had them torqued to 18ft pounds like my book said but they still leaked. So i tightened them some more but they are still leaking pretty bad. They are new grey rubber seals i got from cummins. Any ideas what i can do?

 

Switch to Felpro gaskets. Thats what I got and works great.

 

Where can i get some of them?

 

Did you make sure that none of the old gasket material was stuck to the valve covers or the head? I've seen valve covers leak on both gas and diesel engines simply because a tiny piece of the old gasket got missed when cleaning.

 

Did you bottom tap the holes for your studs? On the 12 valves the studs are a hair too long and the valve covers need to be clearanced to fit. Otherwise the stud keeps them propped up and does not allow a square contact with the head.

 

No i didn't do any of the tapping. I was never told that i had to do anytyhing like that. How do i go about tapping the holes for the studs.

 

you may be able to take a dremel and grind out the valve covers a bit if you're having a clearance problem. i had thought that ARP had changed their design a little bit in order to keep people from having to grind them out. I bottom tapped the holes in my block and never had a clearance problem with the valve covers.

bottom tapping the holes with the head still on is going to be virtually impossible if i recall correctly.

 

ARP now has you machine the rocker towers. The old style studs you had to grind the webbing out of the valve covers.
The new style studs are shorter than the old ones.

 

Alright thanks guys, i used a dremel on the covers and i'm glad to say no leaks anymore.

 

AH! Now i remember! I had my rockers machined.

It's been a while.