I have seen the grayish/aluminum look of most valve covers on AL head L98s but mine has a (badly worn) copperish, brown that I have seen on some of the cast iron heads. Is this a correct color for my 86? If I order the cover paint from one of the catalogs will it be the correct copperish color?
They get that "copperish" hue due to the construction; the covers are manufactured from magnesium, through which oil can easily seep over the years, which is exactly what happened to yours I'll bet.
The major aftermarket suppliers, such as Mid America Motorworks offer a paint suitable for restoring the original color to your valve covers, but be aware of the fact the covers are going to stain again in a few years.
Ken,
Thanks for the info. I am surprized that they would get that brown. I am ready to repaint and just wanted to understand why I had seen seemingly two colors.
What is the correct procedure to paint these? The shop that rebuilt my motor painted them and I told them the paint to use but they just painted it grey and some of the paint is chipping off, and I need to repaint them, and dont know how to get them ready for the proper paint.
I have seen many cars with the stained valve covers. I want to repaint mine, but dont want to buy new emblems yet. After all if you paint them chances are that the emblem is old and in need of repair.
I wondered what kind of strange color that was on the valve covers.
At least now I know what they are supposed to look like. Is there a safe way to seal them on the inside so the oil don't come through ? The engine paint they use tomake the inside shed oil faster work ?
None of the articles I've seen addressed the issue of painting the inside of the covers to prevent oil seepage. I don't see why it couldn't be done, but also wouldn't know how well it would work to prevent seepage. I imagine with the right preparation and paint, they could be sealed.
After thinking about this for a bit. The covers are going to be oil saturated. That would tend to push the coating off the inside when they heat up. Wouldn't think there would be a way to cook the oil out of them.
My emblems were fine and I carefully removed them. They are a plastic material which lent itself to removal/reinstall.
I'd be more concerned with paint materials inside my engine than discoloration; after all, mine were 15 years old when redone. I have painted the valleys of past V-8s with good result, but those blocks were REAL clean and dry. Perhaps one of our paint experts knows of a liquid and a process that would clean them sufficiently for interior painting.
I just cleaned mine good and spray painted them.
No primer, its been over a year and 7K miles, still looks good.
BTW, the 'correct tint' they sent me wasn't the correct tint, it was straight silver, like the hi-temp silver you get at Home Depot.
Here's what I did and they have looked perfect for over 7 years now.
First remove the covers from the engine, clean them well inside and out with degreaser and hot water. Then I sandblasted them with a corse grit like "Black Beauty". If you notice the original covers are on the rough side so I used the corse grit to try to reproduce this corseness right in the metal. After they are sandblasted clean try not to touch them at all with your bare hands, this will keep any oils from your hands from getting on the raw mwtal surface. First coat of paint is a self etch primer or a zinc chromate conversion coating. Follow instructions on the cans for correct application and dry time between coats. Next I applied several light coats of the paint that Mid America sells to match the original valve cover color. I used just about the whole spray can on the 2 covers. Let them dry good and then re-install. I have only touched them up once over the past 7 years and they still look great! If the emblem is faded or chipped you can carefully restore that with paint yourself. The new ones from GM aren't as nice as the originals.
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