I know it sounds unlikely, something like greasing the framistan, but it happened.
Bear with me, back then I was a little green. I had a quadrajet and had rebuilt it for the first time. All went well. I got those valve covers at a fleamarket and rushed to put them on. Untill I changed the valve covers, the engine ran miserably. It ran like it had a vaccum leak.
I was just trying to help, like I had been helped with my issue with my van. You guys really helped me out. If I appear off the page, I am sorry.
I am also aware that the PVC line cannot be run open. Back when we first started fooling around, we would take the PVC line off the carb and it would act lean.
At any rate, I take you guys pretty seriously. I have learned a lot since then. I still take care to make sure my PVC valve and hoses are intact. Maybe it was one of those things, but it happened to me. I still try to figuire out alternatives. I removed the front two plug wires to remove the valve cover on each side. I put them back correctly. There was nothing else that could have been messed up. It was an early '70's camaro and it had no smog gear. I deducted it was a vaccum leak from the crack being so close to the PVC valve. Too much air flow.
I donno. I tried anyway.