Powder coating valve cover; question about the underside

[ewrjontan]

I am replacing my valve cover gasket (again) and while I have the cover off, figured I would get it powder coated. I have a few questions though.

Is the underside along with the edges (where the gasket seals) fine to coat? The areas where the gasket sit are super textured due to pealing/cracking paint so I figure it would be best to atleast have them cleaned up.

Also, I noticed that there is a seal on the underside as shown in the following pictures:





There are two phillips head screws on the plate but I gave them a good twist and they don't seem to budge...I am assuming they don't (or aren't supposed to) come off? Through my research, it seems that the seal itself cannot be purchased separately. Whether I coat the inside of the cover or not...the gasket will have to be removed otherwise it might melt in the oven (then again, it's probably capable of withstanding some fairly high temps). Is this gasket important? Judging by its position, it doesn't seem like it really seals anything important. Should I just avoid having the inside coated? What about the edges where the gasket sits?


Thanks!

[TostitoBandito]

I would advise against it. Not worth introducing any foreign materials to the inside of your engine, and you definitely don't want anything on the surfaces that make the seal. If the cover itself is actually damaged or falling apart, replace it with a new one.

[Twistytee]

I had mine powder coated. The early magnesium alloy covers are tough to get paint to adhere correctly. There's a fair amount of pitting and imperfections in the casting, but a decent silver or crinkle finish looks good with the proper prep. That interior cover caps the PCV channels where the breather hose connects to the VC. You should be able to remove those screws by soaking them in some solvent. The cover and attached perimeter gasket do need to come off before baking in a powder coat oven. You are correct the interior channel cover and seal cannot be purchased separately. It's ok to get some PC on the VC edge but no need to paint the interior or the PCV channel edges.


Untitled by Twistytee, on Flickr


Untitled by Twistytee, on Flickr

[NoLastName]

For the trouble and cost to clean & powder coat a greasy old flaking and pitted valve cover I just bought a new one. To me it wasn't worth the effort... but then again I really like the stock silver look. If you want a different color then coating is an option.

The crazy thing is I just had the valve cover off mine... I can't remember for sure if new covers come with gasket surface painted but I'm pretty sure they do. It shouldn't be an issue as long as your powder coat finish is stable with no large surface irregularities or warpage in the cover itself. The screws on the baffle plate are removeable - yours just might be on super tight. I doubt the rubber seal on the plate would hold up to the temps needed to bake a powder coat finish.

[TH3 Shifty]

several people have used this... http://www.eastwood.com/glyptal-red-brush-on-1-qt.html its called Glyptal several places carry it..

a guy rebuilding his S54 went as far as to use this on the engine block valley... helps seal the block and the oil to flow faster to the pan and not pool on the rough surfaces of the block.

[91-e30-318is]

I just started on this process myself. The screws holding the plate came off ok, one of them took hard downward pressure on the screw driver to break it free.

A related question I have is about the two studs the plastic cover attaches to. On mine there are rubber bushings on the studs. I wasn't able to get them to unscrew nor was I able to get the stud to turn with a couple nuts locked on it. I didn't want to apply too much torque and sheer off the stud. Were you able to get the rubber bushings off?

Part of the question on whether to powder coat the gasket channel is whether there will be oxidation over time if it's left uncoated. It looks like the entire part was coated/painted from the factory.

[ewrjontan]

Hahaha, those rubber mounts. So one of them I took some right angle needle nose pliers, gripped on as hard as I could and twisted; it came off fine. Obviously, some damage was done but not a big deal when they are a little more than a dollar a piece. The other one broke on me. The rubber and top portion of the threads came off so now I have the other side (still threaded in the cover) with no way to grip it. I will have to take a dremel to it and hopefully get it off. I will try to post pics this weekend if it works.

[ewrjontan]

So I was able to get my broken rubber mount taken care of. Like I said, I ended up ripping the rubber apart from the lower threaded portion and was left with it stuck in the valve cover. I ended up taking a dremel to both sides to fit my pliers in there. Gave it a good twist and got it out. I guess there was some crud stuck in the threads. So yeah, just grab onto the rubber and give it a twist

[91-e30-318is]

I was able to remove the two mounts by destroying both of them and getting the nubs out with channel lock pliers. Good thing they're cheap replacement parts.

I took the VC to a finishing shop today, they'll media blast the whole thing down but said they'd just powder coat the upper part and mask off the insides and gasket surface.

[ewrjontan]

Awesome. Yeah, I am glad they are only a couple bucks. I will be taking my cover to the powder coater this morning so hopefully they are fine doing the same thing for me

[91-e30-318is]

I got my vc back today, it looks great. I went with Ford Racing Wrinkle blue. Hey, it's an ///M color too: Bavarian Blue, right?



Here's the underside cleaned and left uncoated


It'll be a while before I get to see this in the car, waiting for an S52 rebuild.

[ewrjontan]

Nice, I got mine back and installed it a couple of weeks ago. Question, on the underside of the valve cover (where it meets the gasket) are there supposed to be ridges on the bottom or should it be flush/completely flat? I feel like prior to having to blasted, I could see the ridges through the destroyed paint. After getting the cover back it was more or less flat with a few areas showing a little bit of ridge :/