Here is where my interest arised from.

I purchased a Vintage Speed item and then had a fill tube hole machined into it in the exact same spot as the original pan referenced off the bolt that mounts the pan. worked out pretty good, I shortened the tube also as the original stuck out like a sore thumb.

Those covers are beautiful when you've got a new motor to admire. But how are you guys going to keep that set of fins clean?

My machinist suggested that it would help to take it over and have it anodized or powder coated clear - and another suggested chrome plate.

Cheers

Not trying to hijack the thread - but would think others might want to know...

Dan

Nice work TED I like your style, Interested to know also what PCV valve you used, I purchased one for a 68 Camaro on ebay its a AC Delco part not a scrub part by the way, and fitted it, i drilled and tapped it 1/4 NPT into one of the early linkage mount holes in the block whilst I had the motor apart, I have checked the direction of flow and its correct as per the instruction sheet that came with it.

Likewise for Me Dutchy, I have a PCV and grommet in a stock valley cover made for a breather and it comes too close to the back of my Edelbrock 3x2 intake. I wish I would of thought of this. 

by the way, i love the looks of your Merc. I would like to see some more angels.

Merry Christmas  & a Very Happy & Healthy New year to all!!

I agree with everything Ted has mentioned.  I use an electric Moroso belt drive to run the water pump on the race truck.  I have never been sure of the flow numbers vs. stock fan belt, but in two years in high temp tracks (Bonneville and El Mirage) I have never over heated.  Like he says, besides the horsepower gain, allowing the engine to cool down faster after turning off the ignition is what works best for me.  Can you imagine what would happen if the engine was close to the boiling point when I turned the engine off and had the conventional system?  It would be boiling in no time.  By the way, I also use an electric fan to move air across the radiator during the cool down.

I like your idea of having the system available for weekend drag racing.  With the electric motor in place, a simple swap of the fan, fan belt and pulley to a Moroso belt drive gear on the water pump shaft and you are off to the staging lanes.  This would help solve a problem I saw at the Y-Block shootout.  When competitors were in both the Y-Block and regular bracket racing,  they were going around so fast it was difficult to get the engine cooled down enough to start the next race.  This is a small factor in Harry's and Ted's success, but it does give them a competitive edge to run consistent dial-ins.

BFOOTER3, sorry for getting off the trail of your post, sometimes it is just too tempting

This site just keeps getting better and better.................

In reply to your question of using existing bolt holes in the bracket, yes, I did.  It was an easy fabrication to mount it to the right two side bolts in the timing cover.  I did need to use longer bolts and space it out for alignment with the Moroso water pump pulley.  It would appear that there would be and interference between the bracket and motor with the stock water pump pulley.  Perhaps you could install and remove the whole Moroso unit before and after a race.  It wouldn't be that much trouble.  

I don't know if you noticed my setup at EXPO.  I use a heater blower motor with a pulley added to drive the original water pump pulley and fan.  Controlled by a thermostatic switch.  Keeps the Hurricane cool and cools it between rounds, but the downside is current draw, about 10 amps.  After two days of racing and engine cooling, I ran the battery down Sunday morning.  Should have charged the battery overnight, but I thought the alternator would do the job.  I have to think that at speed with ram air coming through the radiator, the fan speeds the water pump up and I get more circulation.

John

Seems to be quite a few of those finned covers floating around with added in breather tubes.  Here’s a Y engine with a modified finned valley cover and with an added aluminum breather tube welded in place that was done earlier this year.

Al.  How’s this look?  This is the cover you had drop shipped to me for mods.  Will ship out as soon as I come across a box big enough for shipping which should be early this week sometime.  And here’s also a pair of pictures of a PCV grommet with a built in baffle or shield which eliminates the need for a baffle to be attached to the underside of the valley pan.

Dutchy -  I like your approach to drilling and tapping the block for the PCV valve.  Thanks for sharing an alternative method for PCV valve installation.  Indeed a case where you were thinking outside the box cover.

The pictured electric water pump is worth an additional 4-5 horsepower over the stock belt driven unit it replaces and is designed to run all the time the engine runs.  There is no on/off switch based on coolant temperature as is typical with an electric fan as it’s important that coolant be circulating or moving around all the time the engine is running.  Estimated life for the electric pump motor is ~500 hours of continuous running.  This pump design is something that was being worked on for the Engine Masters Competition and have since been developing it for the race crowd.  At this point in time, I’m still working on increasing the flow values.  It could potentially be used on a street vehicle but it’s benefits do not outweigh it’s projected life so I couldn’t whole heartedly recommend it in this application except for the WOW factor.  But a plus factor for a street vehicle would be the ability to run the pump after the engine has shut down for a quicker cool down.