Valve covers & cam lift

[billy wood]

Any idea how much cam lift that stock gen 1 ironhead valve covers can take???

[Doubt_Incarnate]

alot more than the springs can. curtis's turboz24 has upward of .6" lift for both sides and i belive he is running fiero valve covers. the tallest part of the rocker at max lift is around the pushrod itself. and that only moves a little more than a .25". even agressive cams will only move around .5" in this area. pretty much what the lift at the cam is dictates how close to the valve cover anything will get. i dont think you have anything to worry about, unless your switching rockers. but i dont know the specifics

[TurboZ24]

Yes, Technically lift is .62/.60" but if you pull out the lash setting, it ends up being a little less than that. I have no clearance issues with the fiero covers and the crane gold race rockers. The biggest issue is getting springs large enough to handle the lift/duration I run. I run 1.466" dual coil springs on mine, which required machining the heads, spring cups, as well as clearancing the rockers themselves.