What Year Valve Cover?

mcnoople said
If you can suck air through it from the hose side and not easily blow air into the hose side then it is still good.

Personally I am going with an offenhauser aluminum valve cover when mine goes back together. Adding baffles for PCV and a small threaded port that will allow me to use a PCV valve from modern japanese engine. They use small thread in units with full metal internals that will last forever with cleaning. The offy unit also has the advantage of a rigid gasket surface.
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... and the disadvantage of looking decent only from a few feet back. Up close they're pretty lame castings, only partially polished with just a few passes over the buffer and no attention to the deep scratches first, and a lot of work to clean up.

Offy valve cover.jpg