What if I made a carbon fiber valve cover?

[yoshimitsuspeed]

I have wanted to make a carbon fiber valve cover for a while but I was talking to a mechanic and he said the baffles in it are specifically designed and if not done right it could effect proper lubercation, or something like that. Looking at my valve cover the biggest thing I could see the baffle doing is keeping oil from going into the two outlets on top. This would be pretty easy to accomplish. there are a couple flanges that look like they come down on either side of the cam lobe, but there are only four of these. I would think if they were vital they would be over every one. Other than replicating the baffle exactly creating the rest of the cover would be pretty easy. Does any body know how important this is?
Also would different shapes effect lubercation? I am thinking something looking something like a spine, following the conture of the cam and rockers. another option would be to reverse the shape so that on the inside the cover could slope down in a cone shape right over the lobes causing splashed oil to be focused back over moving parts. Does anybody think this would make a difference? Any comments suggestions or ideas would be appreaciated, also with shapes or styles you think would look good under your hood.

 

[dave99gst]

is there a reason ya cant just laminate right over you existing v/c ? all ya want is the look correct?

 

[theboogieman]

You might be able to pull it off but I would definitely recreate the baffles somehow if you do this.
Also....Molding, tooling, pre-pregnated cf, gel coat spray equipment/methods and vacumm bagging or vacumm infusion!! Get to know those things well before you waste the money. And the high temp/high performance resins you will need are not shown on Fiberglast's or Select Products web sites. Good luck and definitely post up some pics if this works out. I think it would look great. Man that's gonna take some trial and error.
Leo

 

[VOTBLINDUB]

they use metal ones for a reason. its on top of the engine. come on, think logically. u can make a lid over one that looks cf, but not the entire thing

 

[yoshimitsuspeed]

they use metal ones for a reason. its on top of the engine. come on, think logically. u can make a lid over one that looks cf, but not the entire thing

Yeah they use metal ones because they don't get $140,000 for our cars.
Not that I would lose a lot of weight or gain horsepower, it would cool a little better , but I think overlaying stuff with carbon fiber is one of the most ridiculous things you can do.
what makes carbon fiber cool is it's strength to weight ratio, It's ability to dissapate heat, and it looks cool. overlaying you would add weight, even though it would be like half a bound but still and you would slightly reduce the ability to dissipate heat.
If you are worried about the heat I have found resins that can tolerate up to 5,000 deg

 

[greyforestgst]

whoever does one will have to market it and sell it...
making a fully carbon fiber valve cover for our cars would involve hundreds of hours. no one will do it for a one shot deal if they spend that much, they will make some money back by selling them.

what i would rather have is a carbon fiber intake manifold.

 

[92awddsm]

The baffles are of no major importance. They are only there to reduce the amount of oil pulled through the pcv valve and crankcase breather. I would put baffles back in but I wouldnt spend much time on the design. Id like to know how it goes and If you would be willing to sell any?

 

[yoshimitsuspeed]

Selling them on a small scale will be the plan.
I think I could have a mold and first trial parts in under 2 weeks. The overall design wouldn't be all that hard. A CF intake is high on the list but this would take a quite a bit more R&D to function properly.
92 awd that was pretty much my thought on it. It wouldn't be too hard to make something that performed that task

 

[DSMKevan]

Could you whip up some CF spark plug covers? That would be tighht!

Let us know how it goes with the valve cover though.

 

[yoshimitsuspeed]

Could you whip up some CF spark plug covers? That would be tighht!


At il be easy.
Probably in the next 2 weeks.

 

[Libila]

I dont know if it was said already, but there already are CF valve covers on the market. Not your our cars but for Honda's. They look really slick, I would like to see them for

 

[DSMKevan]

At il be easy.
Probably in the next 2 weeks

How much for them then? I have some stuff for sale that I could trade you (look at my ad!)

 

[IMMORTALSPYDER]

I would defidently be interested in a CF valve cover. That would just look sick!