I purchased a set of Edelbrock Elite Tall Valve covers, and am running into nothing but issues with them. The forced me already to purchase a new Alternator setup. Two other obvious issues I see have to do with clearance. The tall valve cover on the passenger side pushes into on of the heater hoses some. On the driver side there is like paper distance between the valve cover and the brake booster. This is the one I most concerned about. Im afraid when I get on it the engine is going to move and hit the brake booster. Is this something I should be worried about.

Second question. Im getting sick of all these issues with the tall valve covers. I bought these thinking I needed them to clear my 1.6 roller tip rockers. My old valve covers were the Micky Thompson ones with fins on them. Would these actually clear my setup. If so I think Im just going to say screw it and clean those puppies up and put them on and sell off these never used Edelbrocks. I used a 5/16 felpro gasket and will reuse that on the MTs if that helps.

if your going from reg valve covers to tall then there will be some interference issuse to correct.
heater hoses need to be lengthend etc.
the clearance with the brake booster isnt an issue.
when you torque up the motor the gap will widen anyhow.

Go ahead and say it, use the old covers. Do you know if you have the correct engine mount towers?

I had this problem too but I really needed the tall valve covers.
So I changed my booster to a 9". As for heater hoses, I don't run them.

Dawg is right, you won't have to worry about the clearance issue but I wanted more room there because it was a b!tch to get the valve covers off to adjust valves. My valve cover were about 1/8 inch from my booster. I also just thought it would look better.

So I think your tall valve covers will work if you want to use them. If the other ones are too scuffed up and you're worried about appearance, just bead blast them and paint them to look the way you want them to look.

Look at the post in this section that is talking about belt drives. Dawg posted a pic of my engine. I did that with those valve covers with high heat paint and I think they're passable. It was a rush job so you can see they've nicked up easily but when I paint them again I'll take more time and add more coats and a clear coat too.
Masking was painstaking though.

So you guys are saying not to worry about the valve cover pretty much resting against the brake booster. Here is a pic I snapped this morning to show exactly how little room there is.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a270/landersen27/Engine%20Rebuild/IMG_0351.jpg

I had the same problem and I worried about it. Mostly because it was hard to remove the VC when I needed to adjust valves or just look at the rockers.
So I went with a smaller booster.

I think its your preference. I don't think anything is going to make contact.

Id rather not swap out the booster at this time, maybe down the road I'll do that. At this point I just want to get this motor broken in and on the road.

Based on the short valve covers I said I had in the first post and the 1.6 rocker tips I have, will I have clearence issues if I were to swap out my tall ones back to short ones for now? Id reuse the 5/16 gaskets I bought so that would give me a little more clearance. The MT Valve covers I have do not have baffels installed in them if that helps too.

Which cyl heads are you using? Many of the aftermarket heads have a taller surface for mounting the valve covers, obviating the need for taller covers. I have GMPP Fastburn heads, 1.6 narrow body aluminum roller rockers and stock stamped centerbolt valve covers and have no interference issues whatsoever.

I have the pro-toplines.

yeah they are closer than i figured
a picture was what was needed in your first post.
there shouldnt be a problem as i stated but if your using a bigblock in that car with smallblock motor mounts thats your problem.
bigblock mounts are very different and all your clearance issues will be resolved.
I think the big block mounts raise the left side of the motor a bit so your hoses will fit and youll have 1/2 to 3/4 inch clearance betweeen the valve covers and the booster.
or get a 9 inch booster and be done with the problem all together.
here is a pic of my 383 with tall valve covers and booster i got 1 1/2 inch plus with a 9 inch booster.
http://webpages.charter.net/harrycoon/its%20alive%20(Medium).JPG

The engine is a small block with the correct motor mounts. I might leave it on for now and break the engine in this weekend since Im that close to starting her up for the first time. Then after the break in I'll see what happens when a little load is put on the engine and see if it will be a problem. The car is going to be driven very soft for the first 500 miles anyways.

If anyone thinks I should be more concearned and possible swap on my old short valve covers let me know and I can give those a shot. I guess the first test with the short ones is to see if the will rest over the rocker arms. Then use a little play doo and see how much clearance I have under them next.