I replaced my VC gasket today and while i was at it painted the cover itself. I think it came out pretty well... The photo of the finished product isnt the greatest but anyway it went from this




to this:




The color is MGB Engine red. Its kinda close to the red of a redtop

 

looks good

 

Looks like you did a good job.

Used a primer?

 

No, i cleaned it with a wire brush on a bench grinder and polished it up a bit with a cloth wheel on the same tool... Then i did a light coat, then a couple wet coats. let it smooth out and get less tacky then i added another wet coat and let it dry in the sun. Then i used a brillo pad on a small air powered angle grinder on the lettering. The paint i used is engine enamel so, itll stick.

 

hey, so you took off the cover, right? if i was going to do that (and assuming you take off the cover), what would i need to be careful of? or do i just undo the bolts and that's it?

thanks ... i'm kind of interested in doing that.

 

did it your self?

looks real clean

 

yea looks nice.....but like djradam asked.....what's there to be careful of? thanks.

 

nothing to be careful of when you take the VC off... just don't let crap fall into the open area while you have the cover off.

Be a tad careful when you put it back on. You don't wanna scratch your new paint job.

If you're not switching VC gaskets, at least run a continuous 1/8=1/4" bead of high temp RTV around the flat surface of the head, where the VC seals up against. Unless you have a really torn up gasket, the RTV will work fine.

When you tighten up the bolts, follow the FSM pattern, and don't over-torque or you'll break the bolts.

 

With the valve cover off there's not much to look out for. Like mentioned make sure nothing gets down in the head while its off... Also dont be alarmed that everything underneath is a light chocolatey color, thats 100% normal.

When I pulled the original VC Gasket there was some RTV stuck to the head, and since you have to remove the old to apply new i had to be careful not to let any pieces of the old rtv go down past the timing chain or into the head.

Once you get the VC off just do your best to get it GRIME FREE. If its still a little oily or gunky the paint prolly wont stick.

Autozone sells a fel-pro vc gasket set for $20 and its a little nicer than the oem.

 

i did mine with the cover on the enjum and it looks fine... just put grease over the parts you dont want to get sprayed and polishing the letters always looks nice.

 

looks nice

 

I likey!

 

What if you apply the rtv wrong, or miss a spot on accident. Ik now it would be hard to do, but what if oyu did, would it severley crap out the engine?

 

Nah.. just dont apply TOO MUCH rtv, it only needs to be a thin even skimming. If you put a fat bead on it'll squish out into the head and likely wont really hurt anything but dont do it anyway.

If you dont apply any it'll probly seal up fine but you'll get oil weeping out a little bit after a good while. The cams rotate in a bath of oil, oil is getting slung everywhere real hard under the valve cover and over time it'd wick slightly out from under the gasket. thats all...

Thanks fer all the comments