Diy: Spraying Cam Covers

[ClutchBurndout-:(]

Disclaimer:

This is a guide only and i cannot be held responsible for your actions.

First things first, you will need to get some items before starting because without cam covers your not going anywhere in your car (unless you have another car)

Go to autofun, ripco or supercrap and get yourself the following.

1- Wax and grease remover

2- Fine grit sandpaper (optional)

3- Engine enamel color (choose a color)

4- Engine enamel clear gloss

5- Cam cover gasket set (optional, if you know you need to replace it, then you may as well do it now)

6- Very pointy nose pliers (optional, you will understand later)

7- Masking tape

8- PCV valve seal (optional, you will understand later)

Lets get started

Getting the cam covers off

Im not going to go into much detail about getting the crossover piping and all that off, there are plenty of threads on this.

Once you have the crossover piping and coilpack cover off, we need to start on all the cam cover screws, some of these are assholes but doable. the hardest ones to get to are the one under the throttle body, the one next to the blow off return piping. The screw under the throttle body can be unscrewed by taking off your engine strut brace (if you have one) and getting a long screw driver down past the throttle body. the other one can be unscrewed easily but getting it out is a pain, but both would be easy with pointy nose pliers, which i didnt use.

Now that you have all the screws off, you have to take the covers off, If you have rubber gaskets on the covers, then some spots might stick on the head and some parts stick on the covers, try to unstick the gasket from the head so the gaskets come off with the covers.

Once you have the covers out, put a sheet or something over the head so no dirt goes into the engine.

Take the bungs out for the blow by, by just twisting them with some pliers while pulling out, they are screw types, you have to wiggle them for a bit till they slide out. Take the oil cap off. Now the PCV valve seal MIGHT break when taking it out, if its the original factory seal/grommet it will be hard and near impossible to get out without it breaking.

Prepping the covers

For prepping, use your wax and grease remover THOROUGHLY, dont be sting, i went through half a tin of it, if you think you see some oil/grease, get rid of it. I cant stress enough about this part, make sure you get every nook and cranny on the covers, make sure EVERY part of the cover is well attended to.

If you did the above step correctly we can now move on. I didnt sand my covers, they were in ok nick at this stage, there were a few small dents but i didnt worry since the paint will fill in some of them, but if you are anal then use some sand paper and flatten them out. Also make sure to mask up the entrances to the cam covers, IE the oil filler, pcv etc, by scrunching up some tape and shoving it in the hole.

Spraying the covers

Now for the (only) fun part, make sure you shake your color can thoroughly before using, and give the covers a light coat and let it stand for a few minutes. repeat these steps until you have a thick looking finish of color with no visible signs of the old finish of the covers. DO NOT go nuts spraying, its wise to let each layer dry a bit before proceeding to prevent running and so it generaly cures correctly.

With the clear coat, the same rules apply, be careful not to spray a lot on at once, as it can make the paint run (even if your color is dry) because the clear coat paint will make your color run if to much is applied at once. With some skill you should be able to find a happy medium between lightly spraying and spraying to much to get a "wet coat" of clear which will give it the shiny finish.

SPRAY IN IDEAL CLIMATE, DO NOT SPRAY WHEN RAINING OR SOON AFTER RAIN

Letting it stand

I didnt have much time for it to dry and had to reinstall the covers to early (thank god i didnt get them scratched), but if i were you i would leave the covers to dry in the sun for half a day or a day, you will thank me when something in the engine bay touches the covers and taking the paint off because they arent dry properly. Engine enamel takes 7 days to cure properly, so you still have to be careful even after a day of drying.

Putting the covers back in

Believe it or not this is the hardest and most stressful part of the job, because it is so easy for something in the engine bay to ruin all your hard work by scratching the covers. Lets take extra precautions and prep the head so that your covers will slide in easily without and chance of anything hitting the covers. I recommend shoving a flat head screw driver into the throttle cable pulley to hold it back away from the head because this part comes close to the cam covers, also make sure any hoses/cables are far away as possible.

Give your cam cover gaskets a good wipe over, and also make sure no dirt is sitting where the gaskets will be going on the head so you dont get any leaks, but make sure you dont wipe any grit into the engine.

With all the above precautions attended to you should be able to get your cam covers in with no issues. Take particular care around the throttle body, you will find that the left cam cover comes extremely close to it, fear not, it should bypass it with extreme care.

Getting the screws back in

The screws again! the most tedious part of the job, i lost one screw grommet unfortunately so take care that you dont lose any when getting the screws into their spot, the pointy nose pliers should come in handy again with this, the hardest again will be the throttle body one and the blow off return. The throttle body one i found easiest to get a hand on easy side of the body, using 2 hands to hold the screw, you wont be able to get one hand in under the throttle. With the blow off return, i had to get a bit of blue tack and put it on the screw so it would stick to the screw driver, for some reason the magnetic screw driver wouldnt hold the screw.

If anyone has any opinions on my methods please mention so, i did mine yesterday and they seem to be holding up alright after a drive, so far so good

[ARTZ]

so thats what you did with your time off..

wheres the pics?

what colour you do em, i did mine silver, also painted the crossover pipe while it was off and the intake plenum and ex manifold covers the same colour. Amazing what you can do with 1 can of 3m heatproof paint and none of it has chipped or peeled either despite no undercoat , I only washed it with some metho and gave it a quick sand.

Plenum is easy to paint on the car just cut a hole in some cardboard to surround it, comes up a treat. Problem is i pulled it apart so many times its all scratched up again now..

Edited February 21, 2011 by Arthur T3

[ClutchBurndout-:(]

[ClutchBurndout-:(]

also note, if anything is sitting on the covers in any way, it will mark it when you drive the car, because the paint softens as it heats up and will stick to anything touching it.

i have a mark from some wireing up the back, and the breather hose to the intake.