Hello Doug,
You're right, it doesn't need to be so thick. I took the baffles/shields out of the valve covers and just ran a set of double thick (glued together) cork gaskets all these years. I've lived with the mess it makes. I added a set of breathers and catch can which helps, so it's not too bad.
Jim Cowles had these spacers I bought from him 3-4 years ago and never got around to installing them until yesterday. My car is here in northern New York these days. The winter road salts have seemed to finally wash off from the recent rains which has motivated me to work on my car. I'm almost ready to send it back to California where I can literally drive it year round. My goal is to drive and try these tracks here in the north east with you guys.
You're right again, it's those tall lock nuts for those Stainless 1.6 ratio Crower roller rockers I run that causes the interference. I too have considered the shaft T&D's or JESEL which would really stabilize the valve train. I haven't thought about altering the valve train geometry with a different rocker ratio as this is a street driven car. So it really isn't necessary. I also want to maintain the period "vintage" look about it as much as possible. What I can't hide is the ARP 12 point nuts on the 1/2" head studs and the boss 302 block.
I'll post another pic once it's all back together.
~E
LA guys never really understood the seasonal conditions we have here in the east. Now you do.
By the same token, that dry, dusty stuff that you get in the summer isn't much fun for me either.
I suppose that's why my car has only 22,000 miles on it?
I tried to get Randy to tell me if the shaft rockers would fit but his answer was don't use them. Use 7/16 studs. Maybe he expected me to read into that?
I'm going to switch to 1.7's. He said the geometry for those is right but the 1.8s isn't.
So if you switch and it blows up, blame him, not me.