Valve Covers

 

Every vehicle includes engine parts which are responsible for the overall motion of the vehicle itself. And the engine consists of various parts too in order to do its function well which include the intake valve, valve cover, intake port, head, coolant, engine block, oil pan, oil sump, crankshaft, exhaust valve, spark plug, exhaust port, piston, connecting rod, and rod bearing. From these parts, the valves are the ones responsible to let the air and fuel in and to let the exhaust out. Both the intake and exhaust valves open at the proper time and are closed during compression and combustion so that the combustion chamber is sealed. A set of valves and the mechanism that opens and closes them is called the valve trains. It consists of rocker arms, valve springs, push rods, lifters and cam if it’s an overhead cam engine. And since the valve trains play a vital part in the whole engine system, it is covered with the valve cover.

 

As the name implies, the valve cover serves as the covering of the valve trains. This can be removed to adjust the valves. This is often distorted on older cars, because there are valve cover screws that are sometimes over-tightened which causes the valve cover to bend after some time. Underneath the valve cover, oil is dispersed after being pushed up through the pushrods. This keeps the rocker arms lubricated and there are holes located in various places in the engine head so that the oil circulates back down to the oil pan. Because of this, the valve cover should always be oil-tight. But if the valve cover is over tightened and is just made of very thin sheet metal, the valve cover will bend and eventually will be the source of oil leaks. So the best thing to do is to always check on the valve cover and if it needs replacement, it should be replaced right away with aftermarket and OEM valve cover.