I had to take off my valve cover recently. Like many others I found it very difficult to clear the hood latch but it was going to be impossible to reinstall it. Especially after putting in new engine mounts.
So I searched this site and most of the advice was to lift the transmission area to slightly angle the engine to make up for the transmission mount collapse. This only seemed to make it more difficult.
So I put some thought into why this was so. Replacing the engine mounts actually raises the engine and shrinks the clearance. Same with the transmission mount. I think the real culprit for why it is so difficult to remove the valve cover is because the subframe mounts have collapsed. It is my understanding that new subframe mounts raise the body above the engine thus giving you more clearance.
Knowing that I put a lift under the frame support (not sure what it’s called) that goes under the floor area on either side of the transmission and started slowly raising the body. Initially the engine to body height does not change as you are lifting both the body and the engine. At a certain point you are just lifting the body and not the engine. You can watch the clearance increase between the valve cover and the hood latch. Then I was easily able to reinstall it. You don’t actually lift the wheels off the ground to do this and I don’t think you are putting too much load on the frame rail. I also put a bottle jack under the transmission to lift it slightly although I don’t think I needed to do that.
I am in the process of buying new subframe and transmission mounts which should fix this problem.
I hope this helps others.
