Painting Valve Covers [merged]

[Defiant]

Only ask once.

 

[crstfr14]

Thanks surfnturf i am gonna do that this weekend or even tonight if i have the time.

 

[1badtsi]

we did it to my nephewss 22r valve cover and it turned out great

 

[killab443]

I was wondering if anyone has any sugestions on what kind of paint to use. I was gunna use regular hammertone paint in the can from walmart...Of course after sanding the surface down. The hammer tone they sell is nice because it covers blemishs and doesnt require primer. I used it on my rims to hide the pitted aluiminum.

 

[jessie1]

I used the 500 degrees high enamel paint that I brought from auto zone for $5 and I painted my calipers + valve cover and it looks good

 

[iboostdoyou]

under no circumstances use any paint other than high heat resistant paint. The engine paint you speak of is perfect... comes in a bunch of colors and is pretty cheap.. wouldnt see why you would do it any other way

 

[Mike1992]

Check the tech article section for a "how to" on prepping and painting the valve cover.

 

[RazorTSI]

Hey quick question for you Turfnsurf, I noticed where most people have a filter on the side of their valve cover(I think its called a crankcase filter or valve cover filter) you don't have it you have a hose feeding to some source, I was curious if you could tell me where that hose is going?

Thanx Matt

 

[1badtsi]

to the intake, and this thread is hella old bud

 

[SexyDSM95]

Hey quick question for you Turfnsurf, I noticed where most people have a filter on the side of their valve cover(I think its called a crankcase filter or valve cover filter) you don't have it you have a hose feeding to some source, I was curious if you could tell me where that hose is going?

Thanx Matt

I have the same tubing but mine goes to an oil catch can.

 

[btodd]

I'm going to have plenty of paint left over from painting my calipers. Will the G2 brake caliper paint work on the valve cover as well?

 

[btodd]

Well I'm going to try it and I'll take pics!

 

[Microrcdude]

If it can withstand heat from the brakes, it should be fine with the valve cover.

 

[tsidrift1]

Ok, heres the deal. I want to match a few things in my engine bay to the color of the car. i Have some things painted now (if you look at my gallery, you'll see my engine bay). For that I used that anodized spray paint. It looks good but it chips very easily and it doesnt match the car as well as i wanted it too. It wouldnt be a big deal but, I am having an engine built at engintecs and while my old engine is out, I am going to paint the bay finally to match my car. So now the blue isnt goin to match and it is going to look cheezy. I was wondering if car paint would be able to take the jeat of a valve cover? I figure if you can get heat resistant paint out of a 4.00 spray can, why cat you get it out of a 130.00 gallon of paint? I know that car paint sittin out in the sun all day has got to get hot. And what about the paint on your hood? That gets pretty hot from the heat of the engine. I was just wondering this cuase I have seen some cars with odd colors, and some of there engine componets match. And from what I know there is no way you can get some of these colors in a heat resistant spray paint.

Just a thought, Let me know

Anthony

 

[cmptrphreak]

I painted my valve cover with hi temp paint and it still faded. I think powerdercoating is the way to go. yeah, I dont think it will handle it these turbo cars get hot as hell under the hood.

 

[tsidrift1]

I actually used that high temp anodized stuff. The kind where you put on a silver base and then spray the blue. It never faded, and is still real glossy, but it isnt goin to match the outside shade of blue.

 

[mavisky]

I painted my valve cover with friggin wheel paint because I wanted it to match my wheels and paint exactly. No problems yet.

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[swade]

i just have one question... did u search for this at all... there are 2 threads in this section on the first page talking about painting valve covers, and one even said that he used car paint...

takerEz
wade

 

[91gsx_turbo]

I got my valve cover powder coated at HPC performace coatings they also did my exaust manifold

 

[amskater]

I have to take my valve cover off to fix my spark plug seals so I figured I would also paint it. Im just going to paint the pop out letters and im wondering what paint would be the best to use. I dont want to use spray paint

 

[tlikethedrink]

just the letters. usually everyone paints everything but the letters.
Tape the rest off i guess.
As far as paint. your goin to need high temp. aside from spay im sure how many options are out there.

 

[96_charcoal_tsi]

I have personally used just some high temp engine spray paint from auto zone. I have done probably 5 or 6 with this kind of paint and have never had any kind of problem.

 

[amskater]

I thought about painting the whole thing but since the cover is already black and my engine bay is gonna be black and red. I like how the red lettering on the back looks in my head. im gonna get the high temp spray paint for the other parts under my hood but for the valve cover letting I figured it would be better to get some good paint and apply it with a brush but I didnt see anything besides spay paint at autozone

 

[just2asian]

If you're going to pain the entire valve cover, what I would do is this.

#1 clean the valve cover with aircraft paint stripper. You can get it from Autozone. It will take off all the paint and also grease. Or you can always sand blast it and then clean it off.

#2 Paint with some type of high temp paint. I use Dupli Color with ceramic. I usually apply about 3 layers. After every layer, I back the valve cover in the oven at around 200 degrees. Then paint it while its hot and then clear coat it with high temp paint. Bake it one more time. Let it completely cool overnight. The reason I bake it is because it expands the paint and when it cools the paint shrinks and almost seems like it is powder coated. I had a powder coated valve cover and a painted one next to each other and you can't notice the difference unless u knew what to look for.

#3 if you want polished letters sand the letters with a sanding block with 300 grit and then move up to wet sand 1500 grit to finish off. And at this point if u want to paint the letters then paint the letters.

 

[turboglenn]

It's already been said, but just make sure you use high temp paint. I did a few things on my motor with some extra body color paint i had the body shop give me when i had a quarter painted and it ended up cracking from teh heat after a while.