351W Leaking Oil

[mickl]

Not too long ago, I had my 351W rebuilt; original engine was a 300. I don't get to turn wrenches a whole lot, but I'm mechanically inclined. The 71 that I have belonged to my dad before he passed away and I'd like to take good care of it. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot about the engine, but I'm willing to learn and get my hands dirty. I have been seeing oil around the valve covers. The rebuilt engine doesn't even have 10k miles on it, so I would think that it should not be leaking at this point, but it is. I'm guessing that the covers are a little lose. Is there a correct way to make sure they are tight enough and a procedure I need to follow for tightening them? I have a two barrel carb Ford type, but when I'm taking off, the engine seems like a sewing machine. It just doesn't seem to have the guts like it should for a v8 unless I get on it. Also recently had the C6 tranny rebuilt. I did notice that for some reason, it looks like the exhaust is not bolted to the engine as it should be on the right side, so I'm going to take care of this ASAP. My main concern is getting the oil to stop leaking. I've noticed that after driving and it gets warm, the oil pressure drops below mid point.

Thanks for advice on working on my truck.

Mike

[towtruckerfour]

The way I've done valve covers is tighten them down like you would a rim. Start at one bolt and just snug it up. Valve cover gaskets are generally rubber or cork I think so you don't need to go real tight. Do the same with the rest around the cover until you get back to the first one. Give the first one another quick snug and do the same thing again with the rest. That usually works pretty good.

[DGrant09]

Just do not over tighten these. The flange on the valve covers can be easily bent. I do not have the torque specs for your engine, I can say I have been guilty of this for years until my rebuild last summer. If the flange has been bent as ours was, a straight edge can be used to gently flatten it out..

[fordman]

when you putthe new gaskets on the cover make sure the area around the bolt holes are flat like the rest of the gasket mating surface or it will leak again because it is warped and wont seal up.

[mickl]

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. This will help get me started. I'll search around to see if I can find the torque specs.