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You can use walmart brand oven cleaner and a local hot water car wash spray.Then aluminum polishing wad or similar. That'd be closer to oem finish. 

I bead blasted mine and 400? grit sandpaper over the NISSAN then cleared with satin high heat. But that was my preference. The oven cleaner and aluminum polish would be closer to original in my opinion.

You could also toss it in a hydroblasting cabinet and clean it up that way.  There's a guy in this area who has done that with good results (they really do look nice when he's done).  He's just using a homemade hydroblasting cabinet, there are plenty of guides on the internet to build one.

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The valve covers are cast aluminum and the original finish is not polished but a dull, natural aluminum.  With age, the aluminum corrodes and that is most probably the finish you are dealing with.  When I rebuild engines, I take the blocks and machine parts to a machine shop that cleans the parts, engine block and such, in their cleaner tanks.  That is how I get my aluminum back to the natural finish.  Soda / hydro blasting will provide a similar finish.  Media blasting will pit the surface.  If you polish the surface, the aluminum will loose its dull, natural finish and become chrome bright, silver shiny.  The more you polish, the more shiny mirror finish you will get.

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The valve covers are cast aluminum and the original finish is not polished but a dull, natural aluminum.  With age, the aluminum corrodes and that is most probably the finish you are dealing with.  When I rebuild engines, I take the blocks and machine parts to a machine shop that cleans the parts, engine block and such, in their cleaner tanks.  That is how I get my aluminum back to the natural finish.  Soda / hydro blasting will provide a similar finish.  Media blasting will pit the surface.  If you polish the surface, the aluminum will loose its dull, natural finish and become chrome bright, silver shiny.  The more you polish, the more shiny mirror finish you will get.

Great points, thank you.


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