I bought a set of plastic valve covers for my 92 vette LT-1 engine-the parts guy had showed me in his listing that they were good for 93 to96 Lt-1 engines.........I figured they would work on my 92- WRONG- the bolts are LONG on the 92 and short on the 93 and ups?? SOunds like I could just use my old bolts, but I notice that the original valve covers had hollow rods that went down to the top of the head for each bolt. The 93 plastic ones don't have this. It appears that they were set up for short bolts.....does anybody know if these new plastic ones could be used with just the old bolts, or should I just keep looking.........by the way the only company i could find that makes valve covers for this engine is S&P out of alabama...........and they are$500 for polished aluminum..........Lingenfelter discontinued their $300 ones...........Help

 

you need to order the short spacers and bolt kit from GM.
they use MUCH shorter bolts due to the fact of the spacers that go in underneath the valve cover.
you will need special valve ocver seals and seals for the outer bolts if the valve covers didnt come with them.
i had them on my old small block.
the look is very nice.
no polishing needed.
all lt1 vettes had them, just have them look up a 96 LT4 to be safe.

 

Are you saying that GM actually made a spacer kit so that these valve covers could be used on 92 LT-1's? If so was it available from the gm performance parts catalog? I installed the covers today without any spacers. They fit fine, the only problem was getting the bolts to line up with the bolt holes in the heads. I used new 1/4" hex head bolts with 1 Inch washers...........it actually looks pretty good, but I haven't gottten it heated up yet to see if it will leak............

 

yes. there are tubes you screw in the head, put the valve cover in place, then these short, large headed short torx screws hold them in place

all available via GM

 

here is a pic of them installed

 

Hey thanks- i thought somebody would have come across this problem before.Do you think it would be better to install the tubes and short bolts as opposed to the long ones i have in there now? I suppose there would be less stress on the center of the valve covers by having the tubes to "rest on"?

 

what you have im sure will work, but the proper parts will look better, IMO.

 

ok thanks Pat