Like all 350 Chevies, the one in Mrs. VCH's Camaro quietly began oozing the black lubricating stuff out of the valve cover gaskets sometime last year. Armed with new Fel-Pro gaskets and a tube of black RTV, I began tackling the job of replacing them this week in my nightly "post-children's bedtime garage hours". I'd finished the driver's side one a few days ago, and last night started on the passenger side.
After cleaning off around the valve cover and removing the fuel line and whatever else was in the way, I popped off the valve cover....and found this:
What the berkeley is that? A spring? Some sort of bolt? Oh, but there's more....
A washer, too? Did the previous owner of this car just toss a handful of assorted hardware into the valve covers, prior to buttoning the engine up? Mrs. VCH has owned this car for over 16 years, and has never had the valve covers off. I'm amazed this stuff has been rattling around in here that long and never caused a problem.
After cleaning the valve covers, installing new gaskets, and tightening it all down, I decided (like you do) to pull the radio out. It quit working last year, and I have a new one to put in so Mrs. VCH can jam out to her Golden Earing cassette tapes while cruising in her '68 Camaro.
This was what the P/O used as a radio support bracket:
That's a plastic cap from a can of spray paint. Gloss Black, in case you were curious. Which, incidentally, is the same color as the Camaro.... 
Could that be the guts out of a PCV valve? I thought they just used a ball, but it's been years since I studied one.
lol. It's funny what POs hide in cars. You know, if I were to use a spray paint cap as a radio support it wouldn't concern me. But finding that someone ELSE did it would worry me about what other jerry rigging was done. Hypocritical I guess.
Toyman01 said:
Could that be the guts out of a PCV valve? I thought they just used a ball, but it's been years since I studied one.
That's a good thought. Maybe. The PCV in it now is fine- maybe an old one? Or a spare...
But that washer is almost definitely not.
That reminds me, I need to get a new oil cap grommet for it, the one in it now is all dry rotted.
ultraclyde said:
lol. It's funny what POs hide in cars. You know, if I were to use a spray paint cap as a radio support it wouldn't concern me. But finding that someone ELSE did it would worry me about what other jerry rigging was done. Hypocritical I guess.
Exactly. Except, I don't wonder. I _know_ the P/O was a total hack.
My Father-In-Law (who was caretaker of this car long before I came into the picture) told me they had to replace the radiator on the car. Reason: like many 60's Camaros, this one was originally a 6 cylinder car. Previous owner had installed the 350. And left the 6 cylinder radiator. The car was originally a stick shift, too, so there was no tranny cooler in the radiator. When the 350 went in, so did a TH350. And a tranny cooler, zippie-tied to the frame.
I mentioned this used to be a manual transmission car? The pedal box still has three pedals....the left-most one being tucked up under the dash and held in place out of the way by the carpet.
Southern cars may not rust, but they sure can suffer the wrath of the "Bubba" mechanic.
In reply to Toebra :
Sorry, typo. Correct, it's a '68.
Cotton
PowerDork
3/29/19 8:01 a.m.
Between this and the burb, I’ve got to say, you and your wife have excellent taste in vehicles!
Yup, that's a PCV valve. You found the guts - spring, plunger, washer orifice. My question is where is all the cracked, disintegrated plastic that fell in with it when the PO crushed it while trying to yank it out with a pair of channel locks?
Thank goodness the car is OK, we need cool Camaros on the road!
maschinenbau said:
Yup, that's a PCV valve. You found the guts - spring, plunger, washer orifice. My question is where is all the cracked, disintegrated plastic that fell in with it when the PO crushed it while trying to yank it out with a pair of channel locks?
No clue. It was pretty clean inside there, other than those metal pieces parts. The insides of the covers was a little cruddy, but cleaned up well. Hit the outside of the covers (some old Erson aftermarket chrome jobs) with the Eagle1 NEVR-DULL and they shined up nice.
After the new(er) radio goes in, I'm taking it to the detail shop to have some paint defects corrected, then we should be cruising in it this summer, with both kiddos in the back seat.
All the plastic got munched up in a valve spring and deposited into the oil pan years ago, no worries it’s just blocking a small portion of the pickup screen
ultraclyde said:
lol. It's funny what POs hide in cars. You know, if I were to use a spray paint cap as a radio support it wouldn't concern me. But finding that someone ELSE did it would worry me about what other jerry rigging was done. Hypocritical I guess.
All I know is that if I finally decide to sell any of my cars, I absolutely cannot sell it to anyone here without some sort of non-disclosure agreement.
pinchvalve said:
Thank goodness the car is OK, we need cool Camaros on the road!
Mrs. VCH agrees. Especially since we have perhaps the only '68 Camaro in existence that isn't some over-restored trailer queen or a resto-pro-touring-mod deal with 19" wheels. Nor will it ever be either of those things.
volvoclearinghouse said:
pinchvalve said:
Thank goodness the car is OK, we need cool Camaros on the road!
Mrs. VCH agrees. Especially since we have perhaps the only '68 Camaro in existence that isn't some over-restored trailer queen or a resto-pro-touring-mod deal with 19" wheels. Nor will it ever be either of those things.
I have a 67 RS SS (real) vert. You can imagine what will happen when I sell it.
buzzboy
HalfDork
3/29/19 10:44 p.m.
Cotton said:
Between this and the burb, I’ve got to say, you and your wife have excellent taste in vehicles!
I've seen the collection. It's pretty astounding. I was over there buying a volvo engine(wanna buy a B20?) that we pulled in 20° weather and then loaded in my BMW with his tractor. There were so many volvos. So many.
NOT A TA said:
volvoclearinghouse said:
pinchvalve said:
Thank goodness the car is OK, we need cool Camaros on the road!
Mrs. VCH agrees. Especially since we have perhaps the only '68 Camaro in existence that isn't some over-restored trailer queen or a resto-pro-touring-mod deal with 19" wheels. Nor will it ever be either of those things.
I have a 67 RS SS (real) vert. You can imagine what will happen when I sell it.
I have a solution for that. Sell it to us. 
A good friend of mine just got a real 68 SS 396 convertible that's been stored since the early 80s when the 427 the owner had installed tweaked the valve train.
Owner spent the next 20 years buying parts instead of fixing it. My friend got the whole lot.
