Valve Cover Baffle Removal

[Uncle Buck]

My 351 has a ticking sound when cruising, kind of like a lifter tick. It doesn’t seem to be there at idle. I checked the header bolts and nothing loose.

I pulled the valve cover off on the passenger side to have a look and noticed the baffle looked beat up.

It looks like someone beat on it to gain rocker clearance and then drilled holes in it so the engine can still breathe. I’m wondering it the rockers are still making contact.

Any issue removing the baffle completely? Just running a breather on the cover, no PCV valve.

858F6A88-1206-454F-B083-952ACC755CE4.jpg

[Ponyryd]

You’ll get a lot of oil vapour coming out of there, the baffle is best left alone. I don’t see any evidence of contact there….it would be very shiny.

[Uncle Buck]

Pic doesn’t show it but there are a series of dents that line up and seem about right for rocker spacing. Not shiny though. Maybe old contact points before someone beat on the baffle.

I think I’ll pull the other side.

[ZR]

Double thick VC gasket gains you a bunch of room.
Not a fan of no PCV / breathers only.

[Uncle Buck]

Not a fan of no PCV / breathers only.

Me neither…. On the ever growing list of to do’s

[LX89]

I removed the oil baffle on my stock 89 5.0 valve cover to clear roller rockers.
No issue with oil coming up the fill tube with those valve covers.

[Ponyryd]

^Fill tube is pretty high, baffle can be removed without much worry on those, this is for a breather it seems. Removing it may not cause an issue but it’s hard to re-install properly if it does.

Pic doesn’t show it but there are a series of dents that line up and seem about right for rocker spacing. Not shiny though. Maybe old contact points before someone beat on the baffle.

I think I’ll pull the other side.

I see a few dents, but they appear consistent with hammer blows, tough to tell by the pic, but if there’s no shine it’s not a recent mark…if you’re really concerned you could probably apply some heat to it and get it in quite a bit more with a hammer, a nice red line just below the mounting stamps should be enough to soften it for a few blows. Personally I’d leave it.

[RedSN]

Playdoe, put the cover on and crank it a couple of turns?