Valve cover powder coating

[non_event]

A couple of months ago I bought a valve cover off of Gadget with the plan to get it powder coated. I finally got around to taking it to Century Powder coating in Kitchener and they did a pretty good job on it.

Before coating:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2510/3891024256_a3926dcc47.jpg

After coating:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2675/3891025408_bba19614f2.jpg

Next step was to install the valve cover. I don't think I had done anything of that nature since high school auto class, but I figured that it would be pretty easy to do.

Original valve cover (still attached):
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3428/3891026496_7ae7a564ae.jpg

Once I removed the bolts I figured that I might as well hit them with a coat of paint to make them look all nice. I bought some aluminum coloured high temp paint at the home hardware down the street for that. I once saw a tip on one of those saturday morning car shows about putting your bolts through cardboard boxes for painting the heads, and it worked like a charm. I also drew a rough outline of the cover and put the bolts in the same place they were from to make putting them back easier.

Bolts before:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2480/3891028688_e606f3319f.jpg

Bolts after paint:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2626/3890239537_a40e02485e.jpg

As you can see, the drawing of the valve cover didn't quite make it through the paint, but I'm still glad that I laid them out in the same order they would go back on.

Next step was to take off the old cover and put the new one on. If I was going to do this again I would wait till the engine was a lot colder than it was.

Valve cover off:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2546/3891030666_7cae30824c.jpg

New valve cover installed:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2581/3891032760_dd01a4d662.jpg

All in all I am pretty happy with this, and if I sell my old valve cover for about the cost of the one I bought, the only cost was for the powder coating.

Also, anyone who does this themselves should be careful tightening the bolts, I managed to snap one. Yeah, mock me all you want. Other than that minor problem it went really smoothly.

Feel free to leave any comments below, and yes, I know that I really should do some washing to the engine bay so you can skip that one.

[iBbLaCkMaN02Pro5]

Looks good man. Oh, and wash your engine bay;)

[distr0]

looks good

did you scrape off and re-apply the goop sealant near the cam gears?

[non_event]

^No, I didn't notice any goop sealant, but I am getting my timing belt/water pump done next week so I assume they will take care of that when they remove the valve cover.

[TheMAN]

is it me or did they powdercoat over the timing belt change sticker?

you need to use a torque wrench on the valve cover or it may leak from over torquing or under torquing! in your case, you snapped the bolt!

[dead_cactus]

That looks really good. How much did they charge for the power coating?

Its too bad they didn't remove that sticker prior to power coating.

[ross]

that looks pretty good

[non_event]

Ok, I woke up this morning and went and got some sealant and redid it. Reading the how to before starting would have been a good idea, not after when I was all proud of my job. Found a torque wrench too, 75 inch pounds (I figured that was midway between the 60.5 and 90.somthing I read on the how to). I drove around for a bit and no signs of leaking. I'll check it again tonight, but I think it will be fine.

Breaking the bolt taught me a lesson, and that is look through the how to's before diving in. I would have got the ultra grey sealant and dug up the torque wrench before starting had I read that. Luckily no harm was done and as I said, I learned an imporant lesson.

They did take the sticker off, but the metal was a little marred and whatever held the sticker down didn't come off at all.

Cost was $50, tax included. Of course, plus the cost of the valve cover.

[TheMAN]

they should've sandblasted it then

do they do colour matching?

[non_event]

I don't know if they do colour matching, it all depends on what powders they can get. The colour range that they can obtain is pretty wide, but they may not have the exact colour in stock that day. I was originally going to have it done in red (to match my car) but the only red they had in stock was kind of pink and ugly.

One of the powder coaters I looked at had a link to the book of colours that were available, I'll try do dig that up and post the link.

Edit:

Here are a few links to the various colour charts available.
http://www.prismpowderusa.com/colors.htm
http://www.protechpowder.com/protech-eng-cc1.html - many types and colours available here.
http://www.tiger-coatings.us/index.php?id=1314 - loads of coatings of all types to be found here.

[ross]

there is an endless amount of colours. i just got laid off i was a powder coater. i did the valve cover that voy has on his car. non event did you get semi gloss black?

[non_event]

I did get semi gloss black. It was my second choice, and he was already doing some of that colour that day, so I went with it.

[ross]

semi gloss looks way better then gloss and flat black imo my old vavle cover (the one that voy has) is semi gloss black and the letters glow in the dark

[CrazyCaker]

It wasn't sandblasted first? :confused:

[non_event]

^It was cleaned and mediablasted, but I guess he didn't get everything that was under the metal sticker thing over the timing belt. I'm pretty happy with it, even with the minor uneveness over the timing belt.

[ross]

not to pick but it should have been sandblasted. but if your happy with it thats all that matters

[non_event]

I agree that is should have been totally smooth. But I'm happy with the results and, as you say, that is what matters. Honestly, unless you are looking for it, you wouldn't notice it just looking under the hood. And look at the rest of the under hood area, it is pretty dirty, so it isn't like I will be spending lots of time showing it off.