Removing the Valve cover for Polishing

[bobs77]

Mike and John,

Thanks for the pics--that's what I need to clean up my engine room.

Bob

[blue 72]

My valve cover had been spray painted to look like aluminum. I used 500-800 grit to start out with and worked up to somewhere around 1000. After that I put in alot of elbow grease mixed with grocery store bought brass polish. Came out pretty well.

Good links on valve adjustment:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1803105&uid=786489

http://www.biopatent.com/engine.html

[five&dime]

If you need to remove old paint, use aircraft stripper. Just don't get any on your skin, in your eyes or lungs. That stuff is brutal. They sell spray cans at Advance and NAPA. Just spray it on, let it sit for 20 minutes and then scrape the paint off with a putty knife like butter. It took me 30 minutes to strip my 510 hood to bare metal. Would have taken eons with sandpaper. Then you have to keep sanding with higher gritt to remove the scratch marks from the lower gritt.

[PhilbertZ]

This is a pretty good resource too:

http://www.xenons130.com/valvepolish.html

I'm growing in mechanical ability (haven't done brakes or installed a clutch, but pretty much everything else "below" that, and I was able to do a valve adjustment on my 280ZX and my 87 4runner with success...though I had to do it twice on the truck and 3 times on the ZX to get it right. If you have a service manual and follow the directions (and have a lot of patience) you can do it.

You'll need the right (27mm I think) werench to turn the crank to get to TDC in the first cylinder, and you'll need metric (14mm and 17mm I think wrenches to do the actual adjustment. You'll also need the gasket as already mentioned here.

Good luck - the best way to learn is to DIY

[bobs77]

How did you guys clean/polish around the letters on top of the valve cover?

[MikeW]

How did you guys clean/polish around the letters on top of the valve cover?

I used a Dremel tool with their polishing kit. It's a lot of work, obviously, and doesn't come out as well using sandpaper on the large flat surfaces. Have your already started this project and if so, how is it going?

[bobs77]

Yep, started it yesterday, using 1000 grit. The flat surfaces aren't too bad but there are alot of pits that'll take more work before I move up to 1500. Think I'll pick up dremel polishing bits to take care of the lettering and pits.

Here's a couple of pics of where I am now. (The stripping gel in the background is for the next project, cleaning up a set of ZX wheels)

[MikeW]

Are you sure 1000 grit is the right place to start? I seem to recall starting with 100 or 150. The key here is to use the proper paper to remove all of the defects at that level. You switch to a finer level only when it's time to remove the scratches left by the previous level. If you go to fine too soon it will take a lot more time in the long run.

[Oiluj]

100 grit is wa-ay too aggressive and will leave deep scratches. Better to use finer paper and more elbow grease.

[Mr Camouflage]

Here's a useful link about buffing and polishing:

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/Buffbook.pdf

[barth4567]

I have done a couple of valve covers and it was alot of work but like Gary and others said it can be done. I finally went out and bought my last one from a guy that lives out in this area. Chrome plated for $100 dollar bill. They are extremely nice. Doing two by hand was enough. As for valve cover gaskets I get mine (72 240z) at my local Napa . I have had no problems getting Beck-Arnley and or Felpro. Just had to wait a couple of days. I also believe you can still get OEM Nissan. There are several choices available. This is what works for me in my opinion only. Have fun. I might add that after I take things apart a couple of times I usually get it right. But thats how I learn. :classic:

[MikeW]

100 grit is wa-ay too aggressive and will leave deep scratches. Better to use finer paper and more elbow grease.

This all depends on what results you want. If your valve cover already has scratches and nicks from dropped tools, etc., you need to be way more aggressive if you want those imperfections gone. You really have to try the sandpaper method yourself to see how well it works. You'd end up spending far too much time to get results that are not as good if you don't start out at the proper level of abrasion.