valve cover powdercoating

[PhilM]

The baffles are screwed on with silicone sealant, be careful and lever them evenly to break the sealant. If they bend straighten them before refitting. Make sure you use engine sealing silicone when you replace them.

[Mr Morlock]

Shuey there are many powder coaters in Melbourne and it depends on where you live. Virtually every business area will have powder coaters. As an example in Bayswater there are about 3 of them within a 1km radius and I have one less than a km from where I live. Its the preferred finish for many parts as its easy to rack up and process. However you will have some restrictions on colours as they run lines based on demand so black is run probably every day. Quite often for a one off you are charged more for the process / handling cost rather than the size of the item. Just take the item along to a powder coater and ask them for a quote and a check for whether the part requires any further finishing or cleaning.

The quote of $100 seems very high to me - way too much for something rarely seen and its merely aesthetic.

One thing to consider that one of the problems of powder coating is that parts often suffer from portions missed because its an electrostatic process and shape can be an issue - ie shielding results in no coverage in certain areas. Production parts often have specially designed racks to avoid this. It is probably no problem in regard to the baffles as its an unseen area. The same thing can happen for electroplated parts.

It is not hard to take an item to a processor and get a quote and advice on the spot- they know the process and can answer questions.

Many of the guys just paint the covers with VHT or something like that and you would not go down the route of shot blasting- its not necessary.

If you remove the cover which is not leaking hopefully it does not need a new gasket on replacement- these are not cheap.