Does anyone have experience painting the valve cover while it is still on the truck? I took my truck to the car was today and degreased the engine compartment. It looks great except that the pressure blew all the paint of of the valve cover! I believe it is aluminum so there really shouldn't be any concern with rust correct? I would like to paint it red like I have seen a few. Any ideas?

You have to take it off. No way to get clean enuff to have the paint stick. Should be media blasted to get all the oxidised stuff off too.

Geez. I don't know what to say. I've never seen one like that before where the paint is nearly all gone. But yes its just a few bolts and pull the cover off. You can re-use the gasket again. But it would be best to just pull it off and paint it properly.

I repainted mine a while back when I had it off to adjust the valves. I took a wire wheel on a grinder to it to remove the paint and then degreased it and blew it down with compressed air. For primer you should use an etching primer regular primer will not stick as well to aluminum. You should be able to find it at any auto parts store and they do come in puff cans. Once youve got a few good coats of etching primer you should be able to use whatever color you preferHeres how I painted mine, nothing special but looks alot better than it did

Man that looks awesome! Was that done with rattle can? I assume you just used a high heat engine enamel? Way did you use for the red?

Actually it was not high temp paint the black and red were both an industrial grade rustolium in a puff can. After I primed it I sprayed several thin coats of the black and once it dried I sprayed a little bit of the red in the cap of the can and painted the letters with a small artist brush. It took a little time (about an hour) but it was in the dead of winter and I just holed myself up in the garage with a couple of cold ones. The best part of it was it got me outta the house for a while :whistle:I will say I used this paint before on some hot surfaces so I knew it would be fine on my valve cover. If you have any doubts about the stuff your using you may be better off using high temp paint

Well I finally managed to get the valve cover done last weekend. Pulled it off, scraped all the old paint off and used a wire wheel to clean it all up. Wiped it down with denatured alcohol to clean all of the oil and grime off. I sprayed it black with Oreillys rattle can high heat black enamel. My intention was to paint the lettering red like above. I took a sanding block and took the black off of the raised portions to prep for red. At that point it looked so good I decided to just polish the bare aluminum and leave it! It turned out really well! I am glad I had the pressure washer mishap now!Another note: I was very surprised by how clean everything was when I pulled off the valve cover! I would have guessed the truck had but maybe 10k on it by the look of the top of the head. Absolutely no build-up or gunk in there at all. With almost 200k I would have expected a good amount of sludge to have accumulated.

I like the polished and the red. These are not sludgers so they should stay fairly clean with regular oil changes.

Well I know that the previous owner was not the easiest on the truck! My wife's grandfather drove it from the time it rolled off the lot to the day they took his keys as a farm truck. He used it mainly for transporting cows and feed. Also not the most studious about maintenance schedules.

shoot ima have to do mine now, those covers look real good!

Looks good now I wished I had done mine when did valves 2 weeks ago. Well will just wait till the RV 275s arrive.

I found a little trick for adhesion on an aluminum intake.. A product called "Bulldog" paint adhesive.. it works great on plastic, steel, aluminum, etc, I used it on the intake of my GMC, then used high heat semi gloss, and it came out looking like it had been powder coated. But the best part it does`nt come off at the car wash:hyper:

Is that like an etching primer? I was wondering about using something similar but wondered if it would make the aluminum look pitted? But if it ever comes off it wasn't that much work...

Is that like an etching primer? I was wondering about using something similar but wondered if it would make the aluminum look pitted? But if it ever comes off it wasn't that much work...

Bulldog is actually a clear coat adhesion promoter not an etch, but it seems to work really good on about anything.. They do make self etching primer like Diesel4life was refering to, or there is concentrated acid solution you can but at an auto paint supply store, and scrub with water and scotch brite... Just depends on how much effort you wanna put into it Years ago we experimented taking a clear coat product called XIM promoter(same as bulldog) and spraying it on new aluminum intakes.. It resist heat pretty well and made it alot easier to keep the engine looking new:2cents: http://www.wmbarr.com/product.aspx?catid=1&prodid=56

I ended up taking mine off to paint it yellow and black. Decided to go the powder-coat route. The powdercoater I used has had great luck with degreasing first followed by a light media blast (baking soda) to remove the paint and not force any finger oils into the metal. Then he bakes it in his oven for 8 hours, degreases again before painting. He says the metal will sweat silicon and some other oils and casting compounds that make the powder peal easily. Ive had it done now for 4 years and looks like new, minus the regular dirt and grime. no pealing as of yet. Cost me $80.00

I ended up taking mine off to paint it yellow and black. Decided to go the powder-coat route. The powdercoater I used has had great luck with degreasing first followed by a light media blast (baking soda) to remove the paint and not force any finger oils into the metal. Then he bakes it in his oven for 8 hours' date=' degreases again before painting. He says the metal will sweat silicon and some other oils and casting compounds that make the powder peal easily. Ive had it done now for 4 years and looks like new, minus the regular dirt and grime. no pealing as of yet. Cost me $80.00[/quote']

Lets see some pictures! I did not realize that powder coating was that cheap or I might have gone that route...

if you are in polished I sand blasted mine with a cheap harbor freight blaster then polished it. took a little work to get it done but looks good.

Did you have any issues with pitting?

Yes forgot to mention that i sand blasted it, then sanded it with progressively fine sand paper. Then took a polishing wheel on a drill to polish. I held the sand blast way back when i did it my cover had some clear coat on it that's why i used the sand blaster. I did have some pitting.