Replacing AMC V8 Valve Covers

There are times that we need to spend some of the Jeep fund on making things pretty..or in our case pretty again. The jeepfan.com 1978 CJ-5 has been around in the jeepfan stable longer than any other and the once new shiny valve covers, installed when the engine was rebuilt forever ago, have aged well with the Jeep but they needed some refresh on the tail of the new Holley Sniper 2 installation.

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We decided on a similar look but this time without any logo or names..just simple and classy chrome.

What was bought?

We picked up a set of Mr. Gasket Chrome Valve Covers, part number 9830CMRG from Summit Racing. These valve covers have are simple with a nice chrome finish with no logos and are made from thick stamped steel. In addition the valve covers are rather inexpensive when compared to the cool aluminum ones.

Installation

Swapping valve covers on an AMC V8 is a pretty simple job only requiring a few tools. There are seven bolts on each cover, five on the bottom, two on the top. Your situation may be a bit different but we started by removing the spark plug wires which allows pretty open access to the covers. The bolts were removed.

With the bolts removed you should carefully pull the covers off exposing the valve train below. Take this time to inspect the area to check the condition of the engine. The jeepfan.com CJ is well cared for and the area was perfect..as proven by the blurry image below.

For those of you with a keen eye for AMC engines you will notice that this AMC has adjustable rockers with roller tips. This is a 1970 360 which has “better” heads featuring this valve train that can use GM Small Block 1.6 ratio rockers.

Prepping the New Covers

Many people have varied methods of how they do valve cover gaskets and we stick with the method of sticking the gasket to the cover then putting a bit of oil o the bottom of the gasket that will touch the engine. This method creates a nice seal and allows the covers to be removed without the gasket sticking to the head and can be reused.

Bolt em on

Install the new covers and tighten the bolts in an even fashion so that the cover doesn’t distort.

Wrapping it up

After the covers are installed reinstall anything that was removed during the install and enjoy the fresh look of your engine. We managed to damage two of the old Live Wires spark plug wires so a new set of those needed to be installed – check out that article AMC V8 HEI Live Wires Installation.