Looking to get M42 valve cover painted

[The_Lope7]

Wanting to paint my m42 valve cover due to the fact its never been touched and is pretty rough. Attached is a picture of what i'm going for. What is the best way to go about this? Should I do it myself or take it to a shop to be powder coated? Any input is appreciated!

[AndrewBird]

Powdercoating will be more durable, but you can certainly paint it yourself. Just make sure you get everything clean. Even if you don't get it powdercoated, it is probably worth it to get it sandblasted before painting it yourself.

[The_Lope7]

Powdercoating will be more durable, but you can certainly paint it yourself. Just make sure you get everything clean. Even if you don't get it powdercoated, it is probably worth it to get it sandblasted before painting it yourself.

That's what I was thinking. I have a friend with a sandblaster so I will definitely do that. If I don't powdercoat, would several coats of the right spray paint hold up well enough?

[MVincken]

if you choose for sandblasting before painting (which is a good step)
make sure the inside of the valvecover & inletmanifold (if you also choose to paint it) is thourougly cleaned!
i have heard enough horror stories of engines breaking down because there was some sandblast sand left on the inside.. you can imagine it´s not so good to have sand in your oil or combustion chamber :)

if you´re going to paint it yourself, choose good quality (heatproof) paint, and enough of it.
otherwise it will go off again and it looks even worse.
personally i think wrinkle paint looks best, but that´s your own choise.

[The_Lope7]

if you choose for sandblasting before painting (which is a good step)
make sure the inside of the valvecover & inletmanifold (if you also choose to paint it) is thourougly cleaned!
i have heard enough horror stories of engines breaking down because there was some sandblast sand left on the inside.. you can imagine it´s not so good to have sand in your oil or combustion chamber :)

if you´re going to paint it yourself, choose good quality (heatproof) paint, and enough of it.
otherwise it will go off again and it looks even worse.
personally i think wrinkle paint looks best, but that´s your own choise.

Do you mean just to clean the inside of the covers or to paint it as well? Was only thinking I would paint the outside. I was also thinking about doing wrinkle paint but I am not familiar with it at all. Does it need to be cured in an oven like powdercoat would be? Thanks for the input!

[MVincken]

Do you mean just to clean the inside of the covers or to paint it as well? Was only thinking I would paint the outside. I was also thinking about doing wrinkle paint but I am not familiar with it at all. Does it need to be cured in an oven like powdercoat would be? Thanks for the input!

To clean it.

What i mean is that if you sandblast the top of the valvecover and/or inlet manifold, there is a good possibility some sandblastsand goes to the inside of those parts. so a good cleaning afterwards will make sure no sand can enter your engine after installing the parts.

[The_Lope7]

To clean it.

What i mean is that if you sandblast the top of the valvecover and/or inlet manifold, there is a good possibility some sandblastsand goes to the inside of those parts. so a good cleaning afterwards will make sure no sand can enter your engine after installing the parts.

Ah of course, thanks for the heads up!

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[MouseRat]

Only other thing to watch out for is stripping the threads in the head. They need to be done up to 7-9Nm and they're a bit delicate. If you strip them, use some helicoils to fix them.

There's a good guide here: http://bmw.e30tuner.com/articles_vchc.php

[ArtFoodBMW]

I used this guide http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/tech...ver_on_BMW.htm as a reference for painting my m20 valve cover.

I used VHT engine enamel I think. It's a good heat proof paint, and I really enjoyed the matt finish it produced. Basically, after each coat of primer and paint, I threw it in the oven to cure for 10 minutes. After it cured for a couple days after, I sanded off the stripes and it was good to go!





It's been about a year since I did this, and the paint is still holding up really well!

[The_Lope7]

Thanks everyone! Will look into it more and hopefully get to it as soon as possible