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Spacers
Pontiac V8 Spacers
Height Without New Covers — Spacers for Pontiac V8s
Valve cover spacers buy you height without buying new covers. They sit between the head rail and the cover and lift it by their own thickness, which is usually all it takes to clear a set of roller rockers or a stud girdle you added after the covers were already on the shelf.
Butler machines its own 6061 billet spacers in 3/8" and 1/2" right here in the shop, and also stocks a 3/4" pair and a polished 1" pair. The Butler sets can be run raw, polished or painted to match whatever is already on the engine.
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1. When a spacer is the right answer
A spacer is a cheaper and faster fix than a new set of covers, and on a lot of Pontiac V8s it is also the correct one.
| Rocker clearance | you swapped to a taller rocker and the cover now touches. A spacer lifts the whole cover off the rail without changing anything else on the engine. |
| Stud girdles | a girdle adds height across the top of the rockers. Spacing the covers up is the usual way to keep a set of covers you already like. |
| Keeping a finish | if you have year-correct chrome or a set of engraved covers you are not replacing, a spacer keeps them on the motor. |
2. How much lift do you need
Set the cover on the rail without a gasket, look at where it is touching, and measure the gap you actually need rather than guessing high.
| 3/8" | the Butler billet set, and the smallest step here. Enough for a mild clearance problem where the cover is just kissing a rocker. |
| 1/2" | the Butler billet set in the taller size, for when 3/8" leaves the cover too close for comfort. |
| 3/4" | a pair of Pontiac spacers for a bigger jump. |
| 1" | polished spacers, the most lift on this page, and the choice when a girdle is what put you here. |
3. What changes when you space the covers up
The spacer moves the cover, so it moves everything bolted to the cover with it.
| Clearance above | whatever the cover was close to before is now closer by the thickness of the spacer. If the brake booster measurement was already tight from the head rail, spacing up eats into it. |
| Sealing | you now have two joints instead of one, rail to spacer and spacer to cover, so treat both as sealing surfaces when you assemble. |
| Hardware | the bolts have to reach through the added height, so check the length you have before you button it up. |
The Butler spacers are made in the USA from 6061 billet on our own machines, which means the finish is up to you — leave them raw, polish them to match a set of billet covers, or paint them to disappear against the heads.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Call our tech team at 866-762-7527. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.