Just wondering what you guys think and can suggest about painting my valve cover and any worrys to think about? I heard to never sandblast or bead blast my valve cover unless you completely disassemble and pressure clean to remove sand, steel or glass residues. Im taking it to a pro to powder coat it and he has been doing it for 15 years but when i asked him to not get anything under the valve cover, he just said it wont hurt it and everybody does it. he will tape it off for me b/c i asked him to but what will happen if crap gets into the baffle (or whatever it's called under the valve cover) Has anyone here had any issues powder coating theirs??

Thanks guy's for your help and suggestions.

 

Why dont you just remove the valve cover? most people take it off first.

 

I powder coated mine and it needs to be bead blasted to get the old coating off of it. I will admit that the interior of the cover was loaded with residue/dust/dirt etc.. . , there was quite a bit of it. When I brought it home I soaked it in my laundry tub basin and then washed it out with hot soapy water many times over. I kept washing it out and dunking it until there was no more dirt coming out of it. I could see the dirt residue settling on the bottom of the laundry basin after each wash (white coloured basin). I made sure to run water through the pcv and under cover baffle. The baffle isn't that intricate it is pretty straight forward and hot soapy water will do the trick. I kept emptying the laundry tub and re-filling and cleaning until no more dirt came out. I was pretty confident that I got out all of the residue.

Once you get the cover out of the water to dry give it a light coat of oil and/or wd40 as it will get a light surface coat of rust on the interior parts, it wont' harm anything but it won't look good rusted up. much like what happens to brake rotors after you wash the car.

 

Have it chemically stripped if youre worried about sand/bead blasting it

 

could i also spray brake cleaner in i(baffle). I did that with other valve covers b/c then it's not like a water that can rust it eh. Also will the soap and water wreak your powder coating??

 

Soap and water won't affect the paint job. The rust that forms after getting wet is just surface/topical rust, you can fog the baffle with some fogging oil, wd40 whatever rust that might form will disappear once the engine is running , just do your best to reduce it as much as you can, it's harmless if it does form. I cleaned mine with CLR because I let the valve over sit for a few hours not realizing it could rust after I washed it and did not oil it in any way. Dumb me. I wouldn't want brake cleaner to get on the painted surface in any way as it can damage the paint.

 

I totally see your point with brake cleaner, thanks for the fyi and i agree. so you had no issues after powder coating it right? Do you still recommend coating it despite some risks. He's done hundreds so do you agree i dont have to worry about him doing it. Would you feel confident and at ease?

 

I used Aircraft stripper to remove the stock coating. It came off pretty easy but a few spots needed a little elbow grease.
Then I used some 400 grit wet/dry sand paper then taped off what I didn't want painted. Gave it 3 coats of wrinkle black. I think it turned out nicely.

 

looks good. would you trust powder coating and what do you think of my story?

 

Powder coating is tough as nails, I havent had a spec or scratch on it in one year of use since getting it done. It's the way to go for long term use IMO. I would not hesitate to have it done, just take the steps to keep it as clean as possible before reinstallation.