Hey guys/girls. I am trying to finally finish up my engine project, but need some advice before buying my final components. I am rebuilding a 350 engine to drop into my third-gen. I am a fan of the Edelbrock Elite series engine components. I came across this kit http://www.jegs.com/i/Edelbrock/350/4207K/10002/-1 which seems like a good price for what it is but I had a few questions before I bought them.

1) Since these are tall valve covers, what will I have to worry about changing. From the searching I have done it looks like I will have to get a new alternator bracket to give me more clearance. Anything else I should know?

2) My engine is going to be throttle body injection. Can I use that style of an Air Cleaner on it?

P.S. If anyone knows of a kit that has short valve covers that would be great. I do not have any aftermarket rollers but if I do upgrade, the taller ones would come in handy. Thanks!

 

I just realized those valve covers have perimeter bolts instead of center bolts. I have aftermarket heads that accept either style, but should I just get the parts separate including the short valve covers with the center bolts, or does it not make that much of a difference?

 

Unless your alternator bracket is different than mine then you shouldn't have to worry about it. I run the tall elite with no logos and they're just fine. Made room for my Crane roller rockers just fine and breathe well too.

 

After an attempt at buying these it turns out that I wouldnt be able to use them anyway. I live in California and apparently we can't have nice things here like open air filters. Also the old valve covers I have have an engine oil fill hole which the new ones do not. I guess none of this will work.

 

From the pic in your link above you have two holes (one for breather and one for PVC). Just pour the oil down one of those, it all goes to the same place.

You can still buy the valve covers separately and I'm sure there's some cool styled enclosed air breathers out there. You could always do a dual cold air intake setup that feeds into your carb.

 

Looking on Edelbrock's website http://www.edelbrock.com/automotive_...r_chrome.shtml It seems as if I cant use any breathers at all since every breather listed has a * next to it which means it cant be used or sold in California. The way the valve covers are now, one of the holes has a hose that feeds straight into the air cleaner housing which makes me doubt that I would be able to use a cold air intake like you have pictured above.

I may just buy the valve covers and pour my engine oil down the PCV hole and go with a dual snorkel air cleaner to maximize the performance I can legally get here in California. I am getting tired of all of these California emission laws!

 

That's why I never moved out to California, ha ha. There's a lot of jobs out there for me but I've turned them down when they said they were in California. Cost of living, strange people and laws, always on fire, etc., etc. I'm happy where I am.

To tell you the truth though I would go to a local performance shop/engine builder since there's a poopload in Cali and talk with them about what you can do to dress up your engine. Unless you're taking it to the track you won't see much of a performance gain over the dual snorkle vs an open air filter if you ask me. It will be in tenths of a second if that and not really worth it as far as performance. But it is nice to lift the hood and see something cool.

 

Yeah. I want it to look as nice as possible when I pop open the hood to this bad boy. The main reason why I wanted the open cleaner was because they look WAY cooler. I am thinking of the dual snorkel because you can make them on the cheap from two old cleaner housings. So why not? If it doesnt work for some reason I will just swap out to the original cleaner housing. It's an easy enough to swap.

As for living in California, I love it aside from the cost of living, fires and laws. But the strange people are what make it fun! Haha, you get some good stories just walking around LA or San Fran.

 

Yeah, don't get me wrong. It's beautiful. I've been on three interviews out there when I was straight out of college in 03 - 04 and I went on a week long honeymoon in San Francisco in 2000. A lot of my friends from college work and live out there. Buuuut, I get paid the same as a lot of them and my cost of living is a lot less. I don't know how they survive out there financially to tell you the truth. If my dream job opened up out there I would probably go but I live and work less than 5 minutes from my east coast dream job. If I can get in there I'll never leave Raleigh.