i have an old 79 malibu and its only got a 267 in it. I wouldnt buy new valve covers because its not worth it to me but i was thinking i could clean the ones i got up a little bit. i was thinking of painting them. What kind of paint should i use? and one other thing is the gaskets. I figure while i have them pulled off i should put new gaskets on. I read up about getting all the old stuff off but i was curious still about it. I was just looking at some average ones made of cork for 10 bucks. Do i lay the sealer downthen put the gasket on , then put the valve cover on?
just paint the valve covers ..high temp heat resistant paint... don't go with the cork gaskets ...use permetex silicone 3 bucks a tube and easier to work with
the best thing i could tell you is clean them good and when you put the gasket on dosent matter if its cork or not, but the silicon ones are better, is that to make sure that the mounting surface's are clean. and have no oil on them otherwise your gonna have a leak. as for the pain clean em good and it really dont matter which paint
I would use Chevy orange heat resistant paint for the covers and as far as the gasket, when you do pull off the valve covers, you will have to clean the surfaces with a PLASTIC putty knife and maybe steel wool to smooth it out fine. DO NOT use anything metal on these surfaces as you might gouge it. Whatever you do, make sure you put rags over or inside the camshaft/valve assembly so you do not get any gasket pieces in the valves because you will have REAL problems then......Depending what kind of gasket (aftermarket) is made for your car, if it is cork, you will want to put gasket sealer on the gasket (Both Sides) first, and then place it on the surface and then put the cover on. Make sure that when you tighten the bolts, they should be torqued to specifications of your car. And if you go ahead and tighten them without a Torque Wrench, just make sure you criss-cross tighten, starting from the corners and working opposite and DO NOT over-tighten !!!!! I would strongly recommend that you torque them to whatever inch-pounds !!!!
