Is it easy to take off the driver's side valve cover? Went to start up my GF's 95 Z28 this morning and it ran like crap, heard some non-rythmic metal clanking from underneath the driverside valvecover. Prior to this we had noticed a steady tap-tap-tapping from under it or near it, thought it was probably an exhaust leak since we noticed it after removing the AIR pump and assembly, and plugged the AIR holes on the headers with pipe plugs. Now this.

Need to know if it can be taken off easily to inspect the rockers and such... is there any danger/cautions I need to be aware of? If you take it off do you NEED to put new gaskets in right away?

 

four bolts on the top and pop it off....no biggee.....the gaskets are reusable...

 

I took the valve cover off, started it up, and the tapping noise was gone. The valves/rockers/springs all seemed to be functioning fine. So just a wild guess, but maybe one of the rockers is hitting the valve cover? Can anyone else offer any other possibilities?

If it was a loose rocker, could it cause the car to idle/run poorly because when my GF first started it this morning, it surged really bad and was running rough. Now it runs much better but doesn't seem 100% ok (idle won't come down under 1000-1100 rpms and it surges a tiny bit).

 

I doubt you have a rocker hitting the valve cover. You can check to see if anything is hitting it by looking at the underneath (of the valve cover) and looking for marks. A loose rocker can cause the car to surge. Mine surges everyone once in a while when I'm adjusting my RR's with the car running. Does she have RR's? If it's stock, just make sure all of them are tight. If so, then you may have a lifter problem.