Sanding warped valve covers . . . Grrr !!

[Jerome74911S]

I'm using a thick slab of polished granite as my work surface. It is very close to being perfectly smooth. After sanding my lower valve covers they lay flat anywhere on the granite surface - no wobble, so they are good to go.

The upper covers, that are original Porsche, are very warped. So warped, that sanding off enough material to flatten them would grind off all of the contact edge, making the covers into junk.

Question: Can the upper covers be bent to reduce the warp, before a final bit of sanding?

[john walker's workshop]

Rather doubt it. Find someone with a big flatbed belt sander to speed things up. They do flatten out when the bolts are tightened.

[Dodge Man]

John is spot on about the covers bending back to seal. However, one of the first things I did to my 73 2.4 was convert to TURBO VALVE COVERS(newer) back in the day. The mag case motors were notorious for leaking valve covers. SAVE YOUR ORIGINAL COVERS/all parts FOR RESALE!!! I have a 72 MFI motor with about 60-80K miles on the engine stand and most of the oil trail is coming from the valve covers. It is a super clean time capsule motor so the trail was easy to follow. Best of luck. Over the years I have learned to love the smell of Simple Green to degrease the heat exchangers and melt the paper stuck in the Behr from body shops. Best of luck.