I was out hunting for the oil leak at the back of the engine and ran into trouble trying to get the tappet cover off. The throttle rod is off and the two mounting nuts have been removed. The cover is loose but I couldn't find a way to sneak it past the manifolds and generator. How do you get it off?
I hope its just leaking from the back of the tappet cover. I used gasket goo on the cover and the cover side of the gasket but not on the block or the block side of the gasket. I had in mind making it easy to remove for tappet adjustment sometime down the road. Now I'd just like to get it off and goop it up to see if I that will stem the tide.
Vintage Paul
What's with that castled nut barley on ???
Paul, I just removed two within the last week. The first one was on a short block that came from Snyder's. I've heard Ron's Machine does them, but I haven't verified that. It fell off after removing the two bolts. No adhesive on either side of the cork gasket. The second was on an engine that Ross Lilleker had rebuilt. After removing the two bolts, I had to insert a wood chisel under the front end to break it loose. Seemed Ross didn't want it to leak oil so he used clear silicone on both sides of the gasket. I'm running a B intake and exhaust and had plenty of room to slide it down and out toward the rear.
Used manifold studs with a ridge on them. That will prevent the cover from coming off even after the nuts are removed. UNSCREW the studs. troop
Paul, an easy way to make your cover seal and be removable is to put rtv on the gasket, put a thin layer of grease on the block. This makes a nice seal and a reuse able gasket.
I believe it will slide forward up and out on an angle. Did it several times on the '26 for same reason.
One thing to watch is the cover itself. Mine was leaking and I was focused on gaskets and getting a good seal. After the third attempt to get the cover and gasket to seal. I finally noticed that the cover mating surface was damaged. Looked like it had been bent and was straitened with a hammer. The result was dings in the mating surface that I believe were preventing a good seal. I have recently picked up a really nice, undamaged cover and will install soon. As for the leak around the hogs head felt, I put new gaskets in that area as well with "the right stuff" RTV and still had trouble. I applied "the right stuff" RTV to the outside after cleaning with urethane thinner and had had good success with that. It would do for a show car but for a driver like mine, it helps keep the oil consumption down to something I can live with.
I was not able to winkle the cover off with the manifolds in place. I tried wiggling & sliding it but no soap, it wasn't coming off. Here is what it looked like:
I decided to throw in the towel and pull the manifolds off. That way the cover could be removed and the whole side off the motor cleaned up. The generator also needed to come off but that is a separate matter.
Just as Chester suggested, the cover was both bowed out at the ends and had a ripply mating surface when viewed end on. The cover looked pretty good and sealed on the old motor but I have to think it was the large amount of silicone the previous builder had used that did the job.
The cover is off now and I'll see if I can get it straight enough to use.
Vintage Paul
It's odd that no one has mentioned this yet, but most likely the oil leak in your first picture has nothing to do with with the valve cover. That's a pretty standard place have oil leaking due to an insufficient seal between the hogshead and the engine block. See the thread about sealing up an aluminum hogshead - that corner between the block and hogshead is notoriously difficult to seal.
I'd tighten up that front bolt, clean the oil up really well, then wash that spot really well with some acetone. Get you a shop vac hooked up to the oil filler and then goop that spot really well with some ultra-black or some The Right Stuff. Just the other side of the hogshead and see if you don't have the exact same leak in the same spot.
Fixing the leak in the front corners of the hogs head does not always entail taking the whole hogshead off the transmission. You can make up some small wooden wedges or use pencils, lift the hogshead just enough to slide the wedges between the pan and hogshead, inject a small amount of black RTV where necessary, then pull the wedges out and re-bolt.
Something to try on that uneven valve cover: sandwich the flat edge between a couple of heavy pieces of steel in a press and apply several tons to it.
Sorry, didn't mean to suggest that you had to remove the hogshead to fix that leak. I meant only to do what I recommended with no other steps, in fact I'd tighten that bolt to the left in the second picture before doing anything else.
My first thought was the hogshead and that may still prove to be the source of the leak. I'm going to try to seal up the cover first and see where we are at.
I was trying to be pretty careful when the hogshead went on. Lots of The Right Stuff was used. Just the same, I had never done this before and even with the help of a buddy it proved to be quite a job. We might have let a gasket slip or committed some other blunder.
I love Steve's suggestion as this would repair the cover as well as it could be repaired. Too bad, I have neither the press nor the steel plates.
Vintage Paul
Paul, ask around. If no T guy you know has the press, a local machine shop probably does.
Are you sure its not coming from around the mag pickup or trans cover ?
You might clean up the corner area and then gook it up real good with RTV. Your leak is in the corner, its standard equipment on a Model T.
Paul
Did you find a way to remove the valve cover past the manifolds and generator????
I have the same issue.
Jerry
Paul,
Did you leave the mag coil ring out?
If so, did you seal the holes that the coil ring mount bolts go into?
If there are no bolts, and you didn't seal the holes, then your oil is leaking through those holes, which usually just break through the block, just behind the last pan rail nut. In fact, I can see the break through in your close up photo.
Troop said: "UNSCREW the studs."
Then it will slide forward and up and out.
When you re-install it, replace the studs w/cap screws (aka bolts).
Simples.
Following up on what Jerry V. said, some of the mag coil mounting bolt holes go right through the casting, others do not. One on either side of the engine. If they go right through, even if there's bolts in them, they can still leak oil as it migrates around the threads.
You call THAT a LEAK?
OK, call it a seep then.