Drilling valve covers

I need to drill 1/2" diam. holes in my two valve covers and in the top of one of my air cleaner assemblies to install fittings to hook up the new Gene Berg breather box. One of the tech guys at Berg told me to drill on the upper side of the valve cover (above the bails) towards the front of the car. Pardon my ignorance but how do I go about doing this? What tools should I use? Of course I know I have to remove the covers, etc. but what about the drilling?

At the risk of sounding like a wise-guy- a 1/2" drill perhaps?

Ricardo,

If you really haven't done this before, don't do it now! If you bend the cover just a little bit, it'll leak on you. If you put the hole [and eventually the fitting] in the wrong place, you won't be able to clear the tin when you put them back on. If you mess up, you won't be able to drive the car until you replace them.

Etc., etc., etc.

If you have a SPARE pair to play with, well then . . . just go ahead, but use a tapered cutting bit NOT a simple 0.5 drill bit. You'll need to make "adjustments" in the size of the hole anyway and you shouldn't use a drill as an end mill.

If you DON'T have a spare pair of valve cover, I do! I'll gladly drill the holes and install the fittings in the correct place for you (I have covers and fitting right down on the work bench) just let me know. Glad to help out.

TC

You're the man TC! I could even mail you my covers and the fittings; I have to do the same number on the top of one of my air cleaners. Let me wait until the shipment gets here (early next week) and figure out if I'll be man enough to do it myself.....

Some heads (MOFOCO's and all of those coming from Berg) have a casting boss on the upper front end of the casting for just such a fitting (that would be on the flywheel end of the head).

When properly drilled (horizontally) the hole enters into the rocker arm chamber just inside of the cover. I'm pretty sure you can drill this with a regular drill and bit - you don't need a 90 degree angle drive or anything like that. Usually that hole is for a 3/8" pipe thread (which then fits a 3/8", 90 degree fitting) which then goes to a "T" behind the fan housing and then on to one of the air cleaner covers (some people run a hose to each air cleaner). Maybe that's what the Berg folks are talking about?
I've never drilled/tapped into the COVER - always into the head casting near the rockers and I've never run hoses as large as 1/2" - only 3/8" and that was plenty. Even if there is no boss there, there's an area big enough to drill through to the rocker arm chamber, a half-inch of so inside from where the cover sits on the head. Then, pulling the covers is still no big deal and nothing interferes with the hold-down wires to hold everything in place.

gn

In the case of the Berg unit, it has 2 inlets (one from each head cover) and one outlet that goes preferably to the passenger side carb air cleaner (of course on engines with dual carbs). If you want to you can use a T fitting to connect both air cleaners but they say it's not necessary. We'll see how it goes...I'll just try to do it the less painful way!! Since I'm swapping the aftermarket alternator stand for an OEM unit, do I have to change the metal louvered baffle underneath or just use the same one? I've been experiencing some oil leakage from there for a while.

If the alternator pedestal gasket is leaking, you should be changing it anyway. Some of them have a crushable metal lip all around the outside edge for a seal ( |>( ) while others have a bead of high temp RTV in place of the crushable lip ( 8>) ).

Either one should be replaced whenever the pedastal is removed as they are not especially re-useable.

gn

Ricardo, What ever you do ( idon't know what kind of fitting you
are using) if it has a locknut on thew inside of the cover just make
sure it's secured/lock wired or such to prevent migration into
valve train if it backed off.

Definitely Bruce, that's a great point and I never thought about that! I will follow your suggestion (that's if I do it myself instead of sending them over to the great TC)...

Well, I received everything from Berg today and I'm so amazed at the quality of the parts...just like the old days unlike the latest Taiwanese and Chinese crap we seem to get everywhere these days. Anyway, Bruce, the fittings have no loose elements on the "inside" part so I guess we're alright. I spoke with JJr today and we'll try to tackle drilling the holes on the valve covers and air cleaner gradually, starting with smaller bits until we get it, to prevent bending the surfaces around the holes so that the o-rings get to seal well. Do any of you recommend using some RTV in addition to the o-rings? The breather box instructions from Berg don't say anything about fitting installation.

Jjr and myself finally drilled the valve covers and air cleaner today; started with a small bit to get the holes started and finished with a 5/8" number. Shrapnel everywhere but we finished the holes using files (we didn't want to screw it up). Came out alright; now I need to clean up the shrapnel out of the valve covers and install the fittings with some RTV and I guess we'll be set. The hard part is clamping down the valve covers in such a way as to be able to use the bench drill; due to their curvature; it took a while but we pulled it off.

I cleaned up all the shrapnel from the parts and proceeded to install the fittings which I did using a very diminute amount of RTV along with the o-rings to help them seal better (I noticed that with these fittings even a modest amount of tightness tends to displace the o-rings to the sides). I bought a new metal deflector plate and associated gaskets to tackle the alternator stand swap along with the new breather box installation. I need to install the new sump too. I hope to be able to do it soon...

On the 19th I adjusted the valves and put on the vented valve covers with new cork gaskets (God I hope they don't leak since they all seem to leak a little).

Last night I started disassembling the alternator, fan housing, etc. so as to swap the aftermarket alternator stand for the OEM. I did that last night, of course installing the metal oil deflector plate and the two gaskets under the stand. Today I decided to install the breather box itself. First I cleaned up the engine using some mild degreaser (would you believe it had some leakage under the alternator stand and some slightly caked on oil on the cylinder tin by the top of the head, especially on cylinder #1 with only 2,500 miles?).

I proceeded to install the breather box as per Berg's instructions and it's incredible how well those parts fit as compared to the oriental aftermarket junk we're getting everywhere. Everything is so precision made it's incredible and beautiful; and as a bonus, the VW engine starts to look more like an original 356 engine because the Berg's design is an offshoot of the Porsche 356/912 design.

God willing, I'll install the sump tomorrow, hook up the hoses from the valve covers to the breather box, fill it with oil and take it out for a spin (haven't driven it in two weeks).