Hey guys. How do you paint your valve cover. Mine is starting to look a little nast and I want to paint i red since that is my scheme under the hood.

 

there are special "high heat" engine paints that is what ur gonna want to look for, get whatever color u think will work best 1 bottle will be more than enough, while ur at it pick up some rtv silicon, 1 tube will also be more than enough, once u get home remove ur valve cover by undoing the 4 little nuts and using a soft blow hammer or hammer covered with a towel/shirt/etc. softly jolt the valve cover out of place and remove it, (common sense ur gonna have to remove ur spark plug wires and the ground wire holding it in place so u may want to disconnect ur battery b4 u start ripping things out of place but it isnt really necessary. once u get the valve cover off, clean it all up inside and out, paper towels will be ur best friend, then lay it down and paint away, u can cover with some high temp clear coat if u like but not necessary if u dont want to, then reinstall after cleaning up the old gasket material, reuse the old valve cover gasket, and put on more silicon all around the gasket, make sure u dont get any foreign particles in ur engine. u may want to tighten those top 4 bolts with a criscross action to torque it down with the same tightness on all corners, drive it around for a few days check for oil leakage around the gasket and if there isnt any u did a good job if there is oil leakage u suck at seals and do it again, but rtv silicon comes in decent sized tubes so u'll have tons to spare, good luck and let me know if u need more help

 

Just to add to what he said above. When you clean it, use a degreaser or do like I did, scrub it w/an SOS pad rinse it off, then wash it w/dish soap. Mine was in pretty bad shape, the paint was peeling and stuff so I had to do alot of sanding. I sanded it down so much that there is no more texture to it. It takes some time, but if your paint is peeling, your gonna need to do it. After sanding it, go back to the sink and wash it again w/dish detergent. The reason I say use dish detergent is because it is a good degreaser. After this final wash, I let it air dry, using papertowels would cause unwanted lint on the cover.

Once it dried I masked off the parts I didn't want painted. Using masking tape I masked off each spark plug opening, the top of the oil fill opening and the port that goes from the valve cover to the intake(or throttle body, I forget). For the lettering I used this stuff called Liquid Mask. It's for model builders(like myself) and can be found at any hobby shop that sells plastic scale models. I brushed it on the lettering, being carefull not to get any of it anywhere but the top of the lettering. Let that dry. Once it's dry you can spray on a coat of primer. The primer will show any defects there may be like peeling paint. Let that dry and sand as needed. Wash again w/dish detergent and let air dry. Then put on another coat of primer. After that dries, you can spray on your color now. I'd suggest multiple light coats over a single heavy coat. I did 3 coats myself, followed by 3 coats of clear.

If you have any more question, hit me up.

 

I painted mine, I think it looks 50 times better than the original.

 

i think high heat paint is over rated, it doesn't have the shine to it like normal paint and never seems to hold up either, i painted mine flip flop to match my wheels and interior, did it with normal paint, just used paint stripper to remove the rubber coating, then primed it with color changing primer(non high heat) then painted and cleared. i baked mine on though, put the valve cover back on the engine and fired it up for 5-10 minutes, the paint started smoking pretty bad then i shut it off and let it cool, then cranked it up again 30-1hr later and it has lasted ever since

 

best thing to use to remove the paint is aircraft paint stripper, comes in a spray can availbale at your local checker store for around 5 bucks, just spray it on thick and let it sit overnight for best results. then all you gotta do is spray it with a hose and the paint falls right off, you might have to spray it twice if its bad and maybe 3 times if its fawked. you can spray about 2- 2 1/2 times per can. and use VHT brake caliper paint for better adhesion and heat resistance.