Polishing Valve Cover

Anyone have a good how-to on this? Also when I do it, would I need to replace the valve cover gasket? One more thing, there is oil in my plug cylinder, I guess I need a new garmets, where can I get those?

Team Sol has a good how-to www.teamdelsol.com

if ur getting oil in ur plug holes then just buy the gasket kit which contains the cover, grommets & plug gaskets all in one.

Thanks dfarres. Any idea how much the kit costs and where I can get one?

any automotive store like napa or shucks

Originally posted by 91civichatch2571
Thanks dfarres. Any idea how much the kit costs and where I can get one?

If u live near an Autozone u can get one for $30 for everything...
It's a FelPro #VS50326R-1 for a D15B engine (DX).

Well its for a ZC so it should be the kit for an 89 integra right?

what are garmets is that the peice of rubber gasket that came out of my spark plug hole last weekend when i took the plug out cause my car burns oil bad. Is there a gasket down in the spark plug chamber?

Polishing the valve cover is more work than you think to get it to come out nice. I was going to polish mine than i decided to just get a wrinkle finish paint. The paint looks awesome, it wrinkled like stock and a dark black color.

Any pics? cuz it really does look like its gonna be a pain in the ass.

Originally posted by Crxce
what are garmets is that the peice of rubber gasket that came out of my spark plug hole last weekend when i took the plug out cause my car burns oil bad. Is there a gasket down in the spark plug chamber?

There are tube gaskets in the plug holes & there is the cover gasket that goes around the valve cover. The grommets are rubber washers that go where the valve cover bolts on. You can buy all the pieces separately or as a kit.

I've spent about 8 hours trying to pollish the valve cover for my d16y8, and I'm slowly getting there...

I started by using a dremel tool and grinding out all of the imperfections... There were several ridges and whatnot that I made smooth just for a more perfect look LOL.

At this point, I'm just working my way down to finer and finer grit sand-paper, then I'll wet-sand a bit, and then I will pollish it. It's pretty tedious.

damn, 8 hours? I know its gonna be a lot of work but I thought maybe I could get it pretty much done in a couple days (a couple hours each day). But its not really sounding like thats gonna happen. Oh well, im up for it cuz I know it will end up looking so good. Oh yea, but does anyone have any how-to's? Im sure ill find some if I just do a search on google but I didnt know if anyone had a certain one they liked.

theres no how-to that I used but i just kept working down to a finer grit, i did this over 3... maybe 4 days, like 2 - 3 hours a day, then said forget it and just painted it how it was lol

It was so hard that you gave up? Did you try doing it with it still on the engine or something?

nope
had it off the engine, was re-doing the head at the time getting new valve seals and decided 2 make the valve cover look good for when I painted it but it was takin 2 long and just painted it ne ways

I know how that goes, I started polishing my valve cover, but it took way too long, so I just stopped and put it back on, and it doesn't look too bad...
http://files.automotiveforums.com/uploads/364638MarcOSa63.jpg

that looks good Marc-OS, heres what mine looked like, i think this was day 2 or somethin so it wasnt finished, it was like day 4 i gave up hehe

how do you get in the corners and around the letters good? Im doing it on a ZC valve corver so theres a shit load of edges and corners. I have a dremel tool and wire brush attachments, would that work good?

ROFL, please dont tell you guys used sandpaper to get the black shit off......


thier is this chemical shit you can buy, i forget what its call, all I did was pour that shit on it, let it soak for like 20 min, then wipe it right off.

Anyone heard of this stuff? Is it true? If you could remember the name of that shit, definitly let us know.

I used a can of "Aircraft Stripper" that I bought at Walmart, and it works pretty damn good, I used that for my b16 valve cover. The other method I used for my d16 valve cover was sandblasting which also took the paint off way easy, but left an even rougher surface so it made sanding take 10x longer.

damn, marc os's looks pretty good.

Mine is just stock with chipped paint :rolleyes: :finger: :cool:

I sand blasted then wet-sanded... Came out realy smooth but I still cant seem to get all the sand dust off (Not cool) So Im gonna have the head and valve cover hot tanked before I continue with the head part of my project... Only reason Im hot tanking the head is because i stupidly put the valve cover back on.... Ya, Im an idoit.

Originally posted by soulkeeper
ROFL, please dont tell you guys used sandpaper to get the black shit off......


thier is this chemical shit you can buy, i forget what its call, all I did was pour that shit on it, let it soak for like 20 min, then wipe it right off.

god no!
i used a wire brush in my hand drill.... supposed 2 take paint of the body so i used it on the valve cover.... and if u've seen pics b4 u'll see i didnt need 2 take much off hehe

Originally posted by 91civichatch2571
Anyone heard of this stuff? Is it true? If you could remember the name of that shit, definitly let us know.

I thinks thats it, its pretty harsh shit, dont get any on your hands cuase it burns like a mofo.

I thinks thats it, its pretty harsh shit, dont get any on your hands cuase it burns like a mofo.

You mean the Aircraft Stripper?