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Cam gears, i got them powder coated, made mistake

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syndr0me

10+ Year Contributor
147
27
Oct 19, 2011
Pincourt, QC_Canada
But i never mentionned to mask off the ribs. So now the whole thing is coated.

Will this be an issue? I'm worried abount tolerane issues nows. Height from the powder coat added from on the top and bottom of the ribs. And potential belt slippage.

Worst comes to worst, i can just wire wheel those out.

Just want an opinion

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Although a good powder coat job is very durable, it honestly turns my stomach to think of any chance of the coating coming off changing belt tightness or belt itself slipping on the coating. Sorry I have no actual proof but I feel like it's worth putting in the effort to properly clean where the belt touches.
Thank you for your time, Jason Penny
 
I would agree with @JPenny. I don't know how the belt might wear on the coating and although it is just a small amount of coating, if it wears off, and I am sure it probably will in time, it will change the tension slightly on the belt. IDT it will be more than the tensioner can take up, but I would clean the grooves myself, carefully, so you still can enjoy the powder coat gears. If you had a head, put cams on those and put the cams in then see if a cam gear holding tool will slip into the gears, still. That will tell you something about how thick it is.
 
Ok guys. Noted. Thanks.

I'll wire wheel the ribs cleans.
 
You will feel better knowing that it won't effect anything. :thumb:
Hope they clean up without harming the powder coat, so take your time.
 
Use as soft of a wire wheel as possible (probably brass). The surface finish on the gear teeth will be changed quite a bit if you use a stainless wire wheel and go to town on it...

Your absolute best bet would be to chemically strip them and re-powder them, but I understand that would be pretty expensive. Just be careful and try not to scratch up the metal surface under the powder when removing it.
 
Originally I zinc plated, and yellow chromated myself. But it kept bubbling and peeling off. Must be a steel alloy that's not playing nice. After doing it half a dozen times, I gave up.


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The gears where only $25 CAD a piece to powder cost so it wasn't bad. But if it was masked it would of saved me a mountain of trouble. The coating is tough as nails.
 
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Aircraft stripper did awesome removing powdercoat from parts for me in the past. The stuff from ACE hardware with the threat of death on the front label.

Problem is, even the gel style would be too tricky to contain and you would likely not be able to keep power looking clean on the faces on them.

I think you may be best off just stripping them and having them coated again with proper masking.

you could certainly find a used set from a member here for say $50 shipped. I am pretty sure someone would even take much less. Stock cam gears aren't worth much at all.

car in you profile pic is sexy AF. Why not other pics? Vehicle profile?
 
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Aircraft stripper did awesome removing powdercoat from parts for me in the past. The stuff from ACE hardware with the threat of death on the front label.

Problem is, even the gel style would be too tricky to contain and you would likely not be able to keep power looking clean on the faces on them.

I think you may be best off just stripping them and having them coated again with proper masking.
They removed the methylene chloride.
 
A. Buy another set of gears for nothing and redo them right.

B. Run them, powder coating is super hard you'll never get the ribs clean and it will take foooooooooooorever. Honestly my money would be on the coating VS the belt. Maybe over like 60K miles it might wear them. I would probably just run them. If you notice they do clean off your set, the tensioner will take up the slack for a degree or two of cam timing which won't hurt a thing, shoot people run BC cams and those things are junk and waaay off. If the coating does rub off just reset the tension on the tensioner again.

That gold with the wrinkle red will look bad ass. More than anything you will have to redrill the cam alignment hole to get the camshaft peg over the cam gear.
 
You may be fine with the tiny dimensional change to the teeth of the gears depending on thickness, but do you want to take a chance of making it easier for your engine to skip a tooth and have a piston/valve party?
 
Well, worst came to worst. I tossed them in the trash. I actually found a spare set laying in my parts bin, although, it looks gouged.

Opinions?

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Thanks
 
Well, worst came to worst. I tossed them in the trash. I actually found a spare set laying in my parts bin, although, it looks gouged.

Opinions?

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Thanks


I've been here long enough to know everyones answer. I ordered a new set off extremePSI

strip the powder off the ones you threw away... with chemical strippers it shouldn't be difficult

Pretty sure they've been sand blasted. Plus the wire wheeling I tried on it was eating it away. I'm just done with them. I've wasted to much time on these gears, I'm extremely annoyed. It's set me back 3+ weeks.

Hopefully I'll get some nice shiny new one in the mail this week and I'll have peace of mind.

Sucks because I've been gunhoe on this red/gold theme. Matches my paint and rims.

I've painstakingly yellow zinc chromated a lot of my bolts for this. The cam gears were kind of a "showcase" piece. Super bummed out guys.
 
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I hear that. But why dont you add more pics of that car? Do you post it somewhere else?

I do not. I really should.

heres a little preview. I might go get the new gears coated... but properly this time.

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Every nut, bolt and bracket has been "polished" and zinc plated. Either blue or yellow.

**Also, dont worry about the plugs. Its just a quick mock up. Everything has been in pieces for the past 3 months. Tonight is the first time i actually see everything together. I must say, i am quite pleased with the results.
 
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You could get the VHT SP404, its a pretty nice gold. Tape it off and spray it yourself and then bake it. I might do that with my fuel rail while I'm waiting on my battery to come in. Just trying to figure out my color, either the stock color that it was which was one of the silvers, or Millennium Jade. Definitely have to redo my valve cover, the Duplicolor Metalcast Purple isnt consistent at all.

I dont know if its the gold you are looking for but its an option.
 
You could get the VHT SP404, its a pretty nice gold. Tape it off and spray it yourself and then bake it. I might do that with my fuel rail while I'm waiting on my battery to come in. Just trying to figure out my color, either the stock color that it was which was one of the silvers, or Millennium Jade. Definitely have to redo my valve cover, the Duplicolor Metalcast Purple isnt consistent at all.

I dont know if its the gold you are looking for but its an option.


Thanks. I'm not super picky on having the exact colors i want. but i do like that VHT option. might strongly consider it. The new gears were 150 CAD shipped. Plus 50$ for a powder coat job again... it becomes an expensive mistake. Although a can of VHT like that is also aroudn 20 CAD with tax. So for the extra 30 bucks... might just get them powered.

Also, since they are brand new gears, the finish will be acceptable to me.

I'll make a decision this week when i reveive in the mail.
 
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