I didn't want to hijack Squirrel's thread, but thought his custom air cleaner fasteners were neat so here's a few examples of my own (I'm tinkering on the digger motor today). One is the valve cover studs. ******* around with nuts, screws and/or washers ranks up with some of my least favorite things to do at the track so here's my answer to that. The studs are custom - I turned down some 5/16" SHCS and rethreaded the ends for 1/4-20. The reason for that is two fold. First - ease of removing/installing the valve cover also when you struggle with the covers you can shave off some aluminum bits that end up in your motor - by reducing the stud size this is virtually eliminated. Also if you notice the last 3/8" is standard size so the valve cover registers as normal when it is seated. Lastly they are dog pointed - that has been a BIG help at the track - near impossible to cross thread when they are piloted like that. You may also see the valve cover nut sitting there on the water fill cap. I made those from 304 SS - the idea here is that I wanted integral washers so I wouldn't have to fiddle fart around with those at the track. Origionally I had them looking very pretty with small fillets where they transitioned into the washer part of the nut. As cool as those looked (and they really did) in the end that design was a turd - the socket would get wedged onto those fillets and you found yourself struggling to get the socket off. So Rev 2 came out - I machined off those fillets - looks so-so, but now they work great - worth the time I fiddle farted around to make them. I'm sure somewhere you can buy these - I looked and didn't find what I wanted - lost patience and decided making chips was the more productive option. YMMV Last is my custom crank washer. For reasons unknown I always would get a little teeny tiny oil weeping from beneath this washer - it didn't amount to a hill of beans but annoyed me. So I decided that a couple o-rings were in order. I made the washer extra thick and was sure to use an o-ring big enough to clear the keyway - been working like a charm ever since. Oh yeah - there's one under the screw head as well.
Neat stuff! I generally smear rtv around the end of the crank so it won't leak...your solution is much more fun to make
Looks good Jason. We used screwdriver handles with bolts welded on for the chevy. That allowed us to pop the covers and check for broken springs, studs, rockers after every run. The usual results of running the engine to 10 grand. We had some great Mr. Gasket rubber like rocker gaskets glued to the covers. They lasted a couple years. Haven't found anything like them again. So how did you make the nuts? Weld the washer and machine the weld? Please don't tell me you started with round stock and spent all that time machining the hex!.
Slag - I know EXACTLY how you feel! I machined a bunch on my digger motor too. Ralph - you guessed it - I machined every one!!! ;-0 - Actually it went pretty fast using my super spacer. I recently bought a itty bitty 6" super spacer - it'll be awesome for doing jobs just like this. HGR to the rescue again!!!!!
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