[FWDLK] 1955 St. Regis

This has been an interesting afternoon. I opened up the Hemi to replace a noisy lifter. In doing so I had a heck of a job removing the valve cover. When I finally got it to come off I couldn't believe my eyes. I had purchased a set of beautiful finned cast aluminum valve covers for the engine and sent them to the restorer when the engine was being detailed to go into the chassis back in 1997. They had taken the accessories off and painted the engine pearl red to match the car and it sure looks great however they are a good body shop but lousy mechanics. I also had sent along with the valve covers some rubber gaskets that surround the plug wires and cover the spark plug tube holes at the top to prevent dust etc. from entering. The shop said they never received the rubber gaskets so I bought another set and sent those to them. Imagine my surprise today when I found the first set of rubber gaskets installed around the outside bottom of the tubes, no wonder I had a time getting the valve covers off. I have had spark plug problems with that engine from the get go and have tried several heat ranges but the plugs always fouled. The rubber gaskets were preventing the plugs from seating all the way into the head, Further more several of the tubes are cracked at the bottom due to the pressure of the plugs trying to seat with the rubber in the way. New rule around here, never let a body man anywhere near your engine unless he is a licensed mechanic as well. I will fire it up in few hours and see how things turn out. Live and learn.