Thought I'd post this in case any Spa owners wanted to search down the road for pics of a Spa with a yellow valve cover. Did this paint job while I was doing a group valve adjustment with other members from my local club...




- Dave

 

that looks awesome! what kind of paint did you use?

 

Ahh man I can't wait.

Next week I'm getting mine powder coated...the dealer knicked it when they were doing the spark plug TSB.

Looks amazing

 

Gasp! All that hard work...and I'm just a week away from having the spark plug TSB done. Hope WB Honda doesn't knick mine!

 

Dude...clean the battery man *cough*cough*
Seriously though... Very well done!
Is the yellow slightly brighter than the body colour? Looks like it is from the pic but might be camera flash...

 

very nice

i think this should be standard from Honda (different color comes with different color valve cover!)

 

won't the paint come off when the engine gets hot and hotter?

 

Yes, should be OEM...That would be a nice touch...except maybe white.

 

Umm...*cough* *cough*...I knew that damned battery would tell on me!

And yup, the yellow on the cover *is* without a doubt brighter than the body color. But it ain't a *bad* different color as far as viewing it inside the engine bay. If I'd had my 'druthers, it'd have been a matching Spa yellow...but again, it came off okay. Besides, the valve cover color matches my calipers!



Thanks,
Dave

 

Man, that's the $10K question! My answer here will also go towards answering SkLz325's earlier question as well. While I certainly *hope* the paint won't come off as the engine gets hot and hotter, only time will tell -- because I have no prior experience with such an effort.

What I *can* say with confidence (and the witness of other local members during our valve adjustment) is that I prepped this valve cover *WELL* prior to painting. I cleaned it with brake/grease cleaner over and over. I then masked off all fitting areas to retain the OEM non-painted aluminum base in those critical areas. Subsequent to that, I primed the valve cover with a gray spray primer rated for 500 degrees. That was followed with 4 separate coats of the same company's yellow spray paint also rated for 500 degrees. The *only* thing that I will have done incorrectly/incompletely is that I did *not* bake the valve cover to 500 degrees (as directed on the spray cans) after the application. I can only hope that the very heat of the engine will accommodate *that* requirement. Again, though, only time will tell. And for the sake of my time and $10, it was a chance I was willing to take. If it proves to have been unsuccessful, I'll rework the valve cover at the next valve adjustment interval...and do it exactly to paint company's recommendations.

Again, good question. I just don't know the answer...yet

PS. For anyone wondering, "If you went that far Dave to do a good job, then why didn't you take the time to bake it to cure the paint properly???" Well, it boiled down to the fact that I couldn't for the life of me (well...not the *life* of me, but it was a good headscratcher anyway...) figure out how to remove the four (4) rubber gaskets that slip down over the spark plug tubes. These buggers were well inserted into the valve cover. As I could not remove them (at least with my assortment of tools), I felt it was better to replace the cover as is, rather than cook the cover in an oven & likely damage those rubber gaskets.