MG Sports Cars

Here's a tip: If you don't like your cracked or faded and no longer so bright yellow or orange oil filler plug you can remove the plastic cover and have a nice aluminum one.

Uh-oh... Hey Curtis,

It may seem odd, but it took me awhile to find the "add a photo" link. It doesn't look like a bitton. I think it should look like a bitton. Maybe a big round one to the right of the subject line if that could be done?

Point is, it looks good and has the big blade on the top. Beadblasted, polished, powder coated or painted I'd take it over the plastic one any day. That thing next to it is the extension that it fits in. That extension is loctited in and won't come out, but with a propane torch you can get it hot enough to let go. It will fit in the hole vacated by the breather oil separator, as will the cap.

This piece should be plumbed into the engine air inlet somewhere before the throttle plates. Then a common PCV valve plumbed from the opposite valve cover to the intake manifold will complete the system. It can be plumbed into the hole left when this vent is removed by drilling and tapping the hole. Your system may vary,

Here's the set I plan to use on my 340 Buick. Happily all the SBB covers are interchangeable including the Rovers. I can't say about the 350's though.

Jim, I'm wondering where you got the cap and extension, it doesn't say in your post that I can tell. Looks like something I could use on my car as well with a little TIG welding on my spare covers.

That all came with the set of valve covers in the photos, an ebay purchase off an engine claimed to be a Rover 3.9:

No telling what vehicle it came in or what year, but I've seen those extenders on other valvecovers. They screw in with loctite and that seals them to the valvecover and keeps them from turning. You could just remove the existing plug, screw in the extension, and screw the plug into the extension. The oil separator, which looks like it has a copper scrubber pad stuffed up into it screws into an identical hole. Very useful for removing motor oil from any blowby. The valvecovers have the bosses for them at both ends, as well as the bosses for the smaller vents at both ends. The smaller boss looks like it is probably large enough for a 1/4" pipe thread. I didn't set out specifically to get those features, but I think it was a good score.

Jim

The valve covers shown with the oil filler extension and flame trap are the same as the ones that came on the 1980 Rover SD1 engine. I don't know what other Rover models had them. I had to file down the sides of the oil filler extension to make a coupe of flats so that I could put a big adjustable wrench on it to get it to turn. The loctite used during factory assembly is pretty tough stuff. The oil filler extension and flame trap were both too high to allow the MGB hood to close, so I thought I could just swap the valve covers left to right and put the filler and flame trap on the back of the motor. I am using the SD1 EFI plenum and throttle body, and the with the covers swapped, the flame trap fouled the throttle body. I removed the filler extension and then found that I had to cut about an eight to a quarter of an inch off the oil cap because the cap, when screwed directly into the valve cover, hits the number 1 exhaust rocker. To fit the flame trap, I cut about an inch out of the middle of it, put the stuffing back in and welded it together.

I'm a little confused by this whole thread... but I'm glad to see Jim buying valve covers because that's the first step towards building a "valve cover race car" for next year's British V8 meet!

[www.britishv8.org]

Curtis,

Can I use the one off my Caterpillar Diesel bulldozer? I'm sure the extra mass would help make it quite stable in the turns.

Jim

I hate to be a kill-joy - but although I'm not familiar with the Cat cover, I suspect it falls outside the rules.

Here they are again:
* The cars shall have no power source. All motive power is provided by gravity.
* Cars shall be based on an actual rocker cover or cam cover (valve cover) from a car engine.
There shall be no limitation on engine make, model, cylinder configuration, or displacement.
* Wheel base shall be no more than 24 inches. (Note: The staging lane is only 24 inches long.)
* Wheel track shall be no more than 14 inches.
* Cars must have 4 wheels, each no greater than 6 inches in diameter.
* Cars shall weigh up to but certainly not more than exactly 12 pounds.

Rats!
Maybe I could drill holes to lighten it?

Jim

"Cars must have 4 wheels"

Hmmm, I thought your's was 3 wheeler, Curtis?

Nope! The "Retro Rocket" has TWO rear wheels, but they're spaced about a quarter inch apart and they run on a common bearing / hub. Of course it wouldn't be very "original" of someone to copy that design, but it's okay with me because I have some different tricks up my sleeve for next year. Anyway, the rules were written to encourage creative "interpretation"!