Paint Job For Valve Covers

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Before After

Can't afford to have the valve covers polished or chromed, so the next best thing is to ... paint them!

I decided to match them to the upper air intake plenum ("Hissman Paint Mod").

Any other valve cover I've taken off was about a two minute job, but on some of the '95 Cobras it's a different story, believe me! Of course, you have to remove the upper air plenum, T/B, and air cleaner, but on the right hand cover, there wasn't enough clearance for the forward and upper flange to clear. Had to remove the mounting bolts on the alternator, and swing it out of the way. The metal heater tubes that run from the firewall heater hoses to the front of the engine were hitting on the upper flange. Disconnected the two rear hoses, and the clamp that's attached to one of the intake manifold bolts, and loosened up the sensor that the inner most heater tube is welded to. Disconnected the upper radiator hose, and the hose that runs to the heater tube - this allowed easier access with the 1 1/8" wrench.

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This all sounds pretty basic, but when I tried to remove the nut holding the clamp to the manifold, I didn't realize it, but the nut wasn't turning - the intake manifold bolt was turning. Using a mirror, I discovered what had happened. The bolt was probably never torqued the last time it was messed with, and I had loosened it ALL the way. Had a hard time, but managed to get a wrench on the head of the bolt, and then removed the nut. I retorqued the manifold bolt (elbo torque). The sensor that's attached to the innermost heater tube was a 1 1/8" size. The only wrench I had was about two feet long (LOL). The sensor is attached to the heater tube, and has a built in bushing that allows the sensor to turn without affecting the heater tube (it won't bend it), but will allow you to raise it up, away from the valve cover. I turned the sensor about 1/4 flat at a time, reaching between hoses, etc. I couldn't find a "crows foot" at Sears, so that was my last ditch effort.

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There didn't seem to be a gasket on the head, but there was a bead of RTV all the way around the head. I tried to scrape it off, and discovered it was actually a METAL gasket about 1/8" thick, with a rubber seal attached to the inner opening, and sealed on both the valve cover flange and the head mating surface. I'm installing cork gaskets ($10) with some non-hardening RTV sealant on them. The high dollar gaskets were $25 (heavy rubber gaskets), and I couldn't see spending that much. New metal gaskets from Ford are $28 each!

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I failed to prep the covers before painting them (major mistake). Then I hand painted the lettering. The paint job looked great, until i started handling them ... During installation, the left cover goes on easy, but the right cover is hard to work with because of the heater tube and the alternator. I scratched the cover in several places, and should have stopped at that moment and cooled-off. When loosening the heater tube, I mistakenly unscrewed it too far, and when trying to restart it, it didn't seem to tighted properly - there was a lot of play in the end of the heater tube. I completely removed the tube, and cleaned & inspected the threads for damage - looked ok. I finally managed to restart the threads back into the manifold, but made a few more scratches in the cover. It was hard to tighten the sensor, and finally stopped, for fear of snapping it off. There was still a slight amount of play at the tube/sensor As it turned out, it didn't leak.

Started the engine, and ran it up to 210 degrees, and nothing leaked ( "whew ...").

The next time the covers come off, I'm going to have them chromed. With all the work entailed in this "little" project, I feel that I wasted my time; however, I'm a pretty tough critic!

Shoulda - Woulda - Coulda

Should have spent a lot of time prepping for paint

Shouldn't have loosened the heater tube sensor all the way.

Should have wrapped paper, or a rag around cover, to protect the paint.

Should have gone a lot slower during installation.

Would I Do It Again?

No ... I'd have them chromed. It wouldn't have scratched.

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