ebay fabricated valve covers leaking....

Have any of you guys used the ebay fabricated aluminum valve covers? I have a set on my car and granted the only crank case ventilation I have right now is the dip stick tube but they leak everywhere. I first noticed them leaking where the gasket meets the head and dripping on my headers. Then as I looked closer they're actually leaking at the top around the bolt heads. Some of the bolt heads are actually filled with oil and others have oil running right down the side of the valve covers. I've got the bolts pretty tight too. Here's a link to the covers I have. I"m curious if others have had the same experience. You get what you pay for I guess.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SBF-Ford-5-...es&hash=item25733c7b61&vxp=mtr#ht_2947wt_1159

 

How do you put oil in it without an oil cap :confused:

 

I'm very sorry to say this, but why in the hell would you buy those ever? Do they really come with seams welded that ****ty? I am not surprised those leak at the bolt holes. No amount of gasket material would seal those up, you'd need to add enough RTV to be able to survive impacts with glaciers to get those to not leak.

This post was really negative, but those look like absolute junk I'm sorry.

And @MaverickDan, you cut in your own oil cap, breather tube hole. A lot of aftermarket valve covers come that way.

Edit - to elaborate, any crack or crevice or fold or whatever around anywhere that needs to be sealed will leak. Those are so poorly cleaned up that you would be just as well off using cheese cloth as gasket material.

 

Lots of people have those, look at Topolino. if you are running with just a dipstick, there gonna leak.

 

Dan,
I was going to add my own fill cap as well as fittings for an evac system.

MSmith,
They looked better in the ad! They really don't look that bad in person. They also have alot of room for roller rockers. The bottom gasket rail is actually straight which is why I'm surprised they leak there. I'm really not sure how the oil is getting up to the top of the bolt. Like I said though I may be building a little crankcase pressure and pretty much any valve cover would leak like that. I haven't driven the car like this, just running it in the garage mostly at idle. And you can actually see where the rear bolt on the passenger side is spraying oil up out of it. I did put a vacuum/pressure gauge on my dipstick tube a few days ago and got maybe 1psi +/-when I would crack the throttle a little but at idle is was at zero or very close.

 

Has Topolino run his car yet?

 

Your motor is gotta breath or it will push oil. I have the Summit brand on my Falcon and they don't leak. But I have a breather on one valve cover and a PCV on the other cover. The timing cover also has a breather.

 

Hey Jeff the pics of the summit covers on their web site look surprisingly close to the ones I have. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and cut the holes in these for the evac system and see what happens. What have I got to lose?

 

I use them, and have never had a problem, but I did put an oil cap and breather, as well as a PCV connection. I think they are made by Proform.

 

I use them, and have never had a problem, but I did put an oil cap and breather, as well as a PCV connection...

...Frank...

 

You've got to have breathers put into them. Be careful running your engine the way it is, cause you can blow out the oil seals from too much internal pressure!

 

I just checked and the bolts that were tight before were mostly all loose. Probably caused by a few heat cycles. I tightened them back up and started it again. it still leaked. I checked pressure on the dipstick tube at idle again and I was getting a steady 3/4psi. It would go up to around 1psi or a little more giving it some gas. Like I said previously
I think tomorrows project is drilling some holes for the bulkhead fittings. It seems like enough people have had success with them that I should keep trying.

 

mashori used them. the always leaked.

 

I had a cheap set of them with real thin flanges around the base and could not get them to quit leaking, I bought every valve cover gasket there is and no help, finally I bought another more expensive set and they were better but still leaked.

At the time I was using header evac system to draw out the crankcase pressure but it was not efficient enough, I figured I had a ring seal problem so I did a compression test and leak down test and all was good. I did not want to use a standard pcv system so I opted to put a vacuum pump on, it stopped all the leakage and gave me a few extra horsepower as well, not cheap by any means but it was my answer. Now I can regulate how many inches it draws at any given rpm and keep it to about 13 at 5000 rpm but could run 20 or better but that starves the wrist pins of oil

Watch for leaking around the rear main seal as well

 

Hey Yellow, is it a street car or strip only? What type pump did you go with?