someotherguy
Truly Awesome
You're probably right on that; I haven't had to do a small block Vortec intake personally. All the other small blocks I've done, valve covers can stay on. Last one I did was my '94 5.7 TBI, only ended up taking them off after intake removal so that I could clean and repaint them.I don't see how you're getting the intake out of the valley without removing at least the driver side valve cover. The tabs on the intake hang on the lip of the VC, hence the reason the manifold set includes one VC gasket.
Richard