<cross-post for those who don't frequent SC>
Well, I installed my valve cover over the weekend, so I figured it'd be a good time to look at the progress. So last year my engine bay looked like this:
And now:
The valve cover was media blasted & polished (of course my hands mucked it all up when installing). They didn't get very good between the letters, so they suggested painting it black (along with the valve cover bolt holes). I'm not super pleased with the results, as I had to freehand it with a paintbrush and Monet I'm not, but it works. I painted the inside with a wrinkle-paint which turned out WAY WAY better than I'd hoped.
Now, the header needs to come out for coating along with the turbo exhaust housing. *sigh*
All the paint was blasted off. It was done very very well. Then the valve cover was polished. The polishing wasn't perfect in-between the letters. So, I painted the center of the valve cover and in between the lettering myself.
Absolutely necessary right now, until I get the distributorless ignition installed. The new housing is so much larger that there is barely any room between the housing and the distributor. I had to notch out the cap just to get it to fit, and the foil is helping disperse the heat so I don't melt the distributor internals ;-)
There's a fairly stock '93 900s transmission in there now, but I have a chillcast case + quaife LSD that will be mated with cryo-treated and shotpeened gears courtesy of Scanwest once this one blows. It will be complete with trans cooler setup and a possible sump.
i too am not sure about the paint between the lettering on the valve cover. if you wish to polish that area out, it will take some time but you can do it by hand using wet/dry sandpaper and a popsicle stick.
i would not clear coat the VC either, but would use some metal polish to clean up the prints and help prevent new ones from sticking. Blue Magic Metal Polish has worked wonders for me and it leaves a silicone based coat behind that will not affect the appearance of the metal, but will help prevent it from getting marked up again.
also, on a super smooth and shiny surface like that, if you get it hot while it is still fingerprinted, you might find the oils from the prints getting baked onto the metal.
you say the header is coming off to get coated? i thought that you had done that already... or are you sending it out again to have the internals coated this time?
Nah I bought it coated from BF.... and the coating is starting to melt off. So I'm going to remove it and have my local shop coat it. They did a great job on my dp and I trust their work.
kind of makes me wonder... what did BF use? perhaps the rattle can stuff you can buy at the auto parts stores that is claimed to be 'good to 1300 degrees (intermittently)'.
i'd like to see how it turns out after the local guys redo it.
Well, the crinkle paint I used for the center was also the stuff I used in between the letters... I didn't think it'd crinkle but it did, and looked terrible. So I shot some aircraft stripper on it and cleaned all the lettering off, and polished it up. I think I'll keep it this way, pics soon.
Yup, that's why I painted them in the first place. I'm going to pick up some polishing bits for the dremel and see what I can't get done.
This pic is after an hour of cleaning oil out of the engine bay. The viggen valve cover doesn't have the little "pinchers" that hold the gasket in, making it very difficult to install. I screwed it up in one spot, shearing the gasket in half which resulted in oil EVERYWHERE running down both sides of the block, etc after a hard boosting run. It was awful.
Not only that, the $20 valve cover gasket was only available in ONE PLACE on sunday for, yep, $70.
It must be impossible to work on that car from 10:00 to 2:00 on a sunny day, everythings reflective, I get blinded enough working on a stock bay, I have to sometimes resy my eyes for a bit if I want to be able to see down in the dark areas.
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