Painting Valve Covers [merged]

[Hokay]

anyone tried spraying it while still on the car??

 

[95burgundyesi]

anyone tried spraying it while still on the car??

Just don't

You could have an accident, and it would be much harder to get everything with the angles you would have to work with while getting everything else in the process if using spray paint. Unless you tapped the whole bay off. At this point taking the 6 or how ever many bolts are on off would of seemed way easier

 

[dsmer1G]

anyone tried spraying it while still on the car??

You can do it like that, but you will have to clean and mask everything that you dont want paint on. It is alot harder and more work that way though.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

It takes less than 5 minutes to remove the valve cover and pretty much garauntees that you can't mess up too bad. One last thing I'd like to mention is to SAND the thing down or at the very list take a scotch pad to it. Simply stripping the paint won't do the trick to a nice long lasting finish. Using primer also helps.

 

[Hokay]

im just scared to pull things off my car... this is pretty much my first car and im mechanically inclined to a degree... i just dont want to screw something up...

 

[amskater]

im just scared to pull things off my car... this is pretty much my first car and im mechanically inclined to a degree... i just dont want to screw something up...

this is also my first car but as long as you pay attention when you take the parts off and put them back on the same way you should be fine

 

[95burgundyesi]

Well make sure to be carefull with the valve cover, it should be treated like glass. And putting it back on DO NOT over tighten the bolts. You are garunteeing a cracked cover by doing this.

 

[blcknspo0ln]

Don't scare the guy . There's about 20 10mm screws (if they're still OEM, mine are SS/allen ones that I swapped out) throughout the valve cover.

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It's not so bad really. The red circles are the actual 10mm bolts located around the valve cover, the green are two hoses that you need to pull off, and the yellow are the several 10mm bolts located around the upper timing cover. There should be two on the valve cover and two on the sides of the cover. So, take your socket wrench, a 10mm socket, a pair of pliers and go to town. Oh, and take the spark plugs wires out (number them if you're not sure, from left to right, 4-3-2-1)

The outside bolts are a bit longer than the inside ones , so put them in different groups.

Once everything is off gently put a flathead into the gap between the head and valve cover. Pry up and down on different pressure points until the cover pops off. When tightening it down again, use ONLY the 10mm socket to hand tighten the screws in. Then put your wrench on and turn it another half turn; torque for these bolts are only 3-4 ft/lb.

 

[toybreaker]

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.

Good post!

Except for the bolded part.

It is a very bad idea to sandblast/glass bead this style valve cover!!!

They were made with a pair of oil separator baffles underneath to pull the liquid oil out of the crankcase venting system. The baffles are not easily removable/replacable. It can be done, but then you are left with the possibility of your attachment hardware coming out and that's not good...

You will never get all of the abrasive media out from under the baffles.

If you blast/bead a 4g63 cover, you might as well throw it away/put it on the garage wall, because if you put on a motor, you will very likely lose the bearings due to media contamination.

Now, I'm sure that someone out there will disagree with this...

For those of you who might have gotten away with it, (temporarily), I would appreciate your not chiming in. This is the newbie section, and all advice given here must be geared to those who have less experience

If I were to cut the rivets holding the baffles of a beaded cover in, and remove them, you would be suprised at the amount of abrasive entrained in the goo under the baffles. All it takes is an oil change, (and fresh detergent in your oil) to break some loose. It will then go through your oil pump, with predictable results.

Your mileage may vary, but as an old time (ase master certified) engine machinist, I hate to see people make avoidable mistakes with such a high consequence.

We had a guy here locally who beaded up a cover, and powdercoated it. It was purdy.

He lost his motor. He sold the cover, and that guy lost his motor...he sold the cover, and......you guessed it... that guy also lost his motor. I cut the baffles off and there was a shit-ton of abrasive still in the bafflechamber...after being run on three motors, and cleaned extensively...It was a very dirty cover (Run hot/with few oil changes, so it was a gooey mess underneath) I don't think they did a very good job cleaning it at the beginning, but it was cleaned extensively after that. Since there is an oil varnish everywhere under the baffles, you will not get all the bead out with solvent.

Now, this was an extreme case, but still, the results speak for themselves.

Chemically cleaning the paint off works well enough, and there are several commercial strippers on the market that do a very good job.

I like the aviation brand, from clean strip, available at Wal-Mart and the like. Set the cover up on several layers of newspaper outside, spray on some stripper. I like to have an oil filler cap on the cover, to prevent any from going inside, and I remove and plug the p.c.v valve opening. (plug the breather outlet as well) Agitate the stripper a little with a small paint brush and wipe the crinkled paint off with paper towels. I've had the best results painting the stripper on in one direction, and then 90* to that if a second application is needed (wear gloves!) Repeat as necessary. Move to clean cardboard, and rinse well with clean water, before flipping it over. Rinse any residue off the bottom.

Let it dry, hit it with some preps'all, and paint away!


Helpfull hint; long bolts go around the outside, short bolts in the valley. Use a 10mm socket on a screwdriver style handle. Tighten the bolts from the center out, a little at a time, and be very carefull with the spark plug tube bolts on the inside! It's really easy to crack the cover. The correct torque value is 2-3 ft.lbs....that's hardly anything! You're better off to just snug them, and then run the motor, and do a final snugging with everything warm.

Also, if you're going to paint the raised letters, don't use too fine a sandpaper during your prep work. The paint will stick better if you don't go past ~400 grit.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled "beautify my engine compartment thread"

 

[talonalex92]

You can do it like that, but you will have to clean and mask everything that you dont want paint on. It is alot harder and more work that way though.

I painted my IM while still on car.

 

[wret]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100354&highlight=paint+valve+cover

 

[liquidnote]

Good post!

Except for the bolded part.

It is a very bad idea to sandblast/glass bead this style valve cover!!!

They were made with a pair of oil separator baffles underneath to pull the liquid oil out of the crankcase venting system. The baffles are not easily removable/replacable. It can be done, but then you are left with the possibility of your attachment hardware coming out and that's not good...

You will never get all of the abrasive media out from under the baffles.

If you blast/bead a 4g63 cover, you might as well throw it away/put it on the garage wall, because if you put on a motor, you will very likely lose the bearings due to media contamination.

Now, I'm sure that someone out there will disagree with this...

For those of you who might have gotten away with it, (temporarily), I would appreciate your not chiming in. This is the newbie section, and all advice given here must be geared to those who have less experience

I disagree as i am a powder coater and i do several valve covers and not one has destroyed a motor. The reason being is that you have to be careful who you send your parts too. in my shop we cover and mask every baffle and plug every hole there is. Once done we blow off the part with air then rinse it with water. The end results are not one grain of media blast to be found in the valve cover. Also there are other ways to strip the cover. we just upgraded to a soda blaster which is blasting with backing soda. the backing soda strips the paint right off and leaves no residue whats so ever. A simple wash with water and its ready to go. You can also go with a chemical stripper which we also do for those who just cant stand the thought of their cover being blasted.

Beware of the powder coaters who do not do any of there prepping or stripping work in house. If they send it out to be blasted ask them where and who does the work since 9 times out of 10 they send it to some industrial company who does it for cheap and thats where you run into problems! those guys dont care or do not get paid to mask and prep a part before they blast and thats where problems begins.

I have done several covers and not one has been returned for a problem. Powder is more durable and more resistant to chipping or fading.

 

[16g-2ndgen]

get your valve cover anodized! it might be a little bit more exspensive but it will last longer, but powedercoating dose do the same thing. but if you only got 10 bucks then autozone is the way to go

 

[amskater]

Don't scare the guy . There's about 20 10mm screws (if they're still OEM, mine are SS/allen ones that I swapped out) throughout the valve cover.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

It's not so bad really. The red circles are the actual 10mm bolts located around the valve cover, the green are two hoses that you need to pull off, and the yellow are the several 10mm bolts located around the upper timing cover. There should be two on the valve cover and two on the sides of the cover. So, take your socket wrench, a 10mm socket, a pair of pliers and go to town. Oh, and take the spark plugs wires out (number them if you're not sure, from left to right, 4-3-2-1)

The outside bolts are a bit longer than the inside ones , so put them in different groups.

Once everything is off gently put a flathead into the gap between the head and valve cover. Pry up and down on different pressure points until the cover pops off. When tightening it down again, use ONLY the 10mm socket to hand tighten the screws in. Then put your wrench on and turn it another half turn; torque for these bolts are only 3-4 ft/lb.

is it the same amount of screws on the 420A Cover?