As an alternate to powder coating, I polished my valve covers. The casting quality of these valve covers is very good and they polish very quickly. As most of the valve cover is hidden under the air boxes etc, it does not have to be polished in its entirety.

An option if you wanted to increase the aesthetic appeal of your engine bay.

 

Wow, nice job!

 

That's really good. How long did it take you to do that much? What did you use to polish?

 

Could you share with us how you did this? What tools, polish, etc?

 

Looks really nice, good work! I polished in the intake manifold on my last car and really liked the look.

 

Nice, I like that look!

 

Looks insane. To do, just need a dremel too or electric drill, sanding wheel package from autozone. Start with rough wool wheel, and finish with smoothest wheel. I have polished a lot of exhausts over the years, and it will have a mirror finish in no time. Great job homey

 

If you want to improve or increase the aesthetics of your engine the polished valve cover is the way to go. Plus you can do this at home, if you are bored on a weekend.

Powder coating is an alternative ONLY if done properly, to have it done properly would be pricey and unfortunately most places will hang the covers on a wire and blast them with the powder paint - which is a "no-no". The E55 valve covers require significant prep before powder coating and the raised surfaces that have the coils mounted as well as the complete underside should not be powder coated and the circular flat edges where the Torx bolts sit. The two (2) flat tops \ covers of the right and left valve covers that have the breather hoses should be powder coated separately as well and of course extensive masking to prevent over spray finding its way inside any part of the valve cover what so ever.

Back to the topic at hand, everything you need to polish your valve covers is in the picture below.


Time per side: 1hr - 1.5hrs (so 3-hrs total tops for both sides)
1) You need a powerful 4.5-in angle grinder, a $30 Harbor Freight special is not going to cut it. I am using a 10-amp, 11,000-rpm Dewalt which is plenty powerful.

2) Two clay compounds, an abrasive to cut into the casting (the brown brick in my picture) and the green brick is *only* for the final polish to give the brilliant \ mirror finish. $10 for both bricks online. Each brick will need its own wool 10-in buffing pad, they are $4-5 each at Harbor Freight (don't forget your 20% off coupon!).

3) Die Grinder with a fine woven pad to remove the casting flaws and prep the valve cover. These Pads are $5.99 per pack at Harbor Freight (don't forget your 20% off coupon!). You will probably burn through 2 or3.

4) An air compressor of course (decent tank size) to run the die grinder.

5) Acetone and shop towels to wipe off any clay residue left after the buffing process including wiping the insider of the valve cover. Alternatively you can spray Brake Parts Cleaner on the insider of the valve cover to remove any dust from the buffing process and then use compressed air to blow it out to make sure the underside of valve cover are perfectly clean. I would like to emphasis cleanliness and there has to be no possibility of contamination of your engine oil once the polished valve covers are re-installed. Remember the dust created from the buffing process is a physical mixture of clay and aluminum \ alloy (so get a breathing mask too and some latex gloves).

5) To finish the job some Mother's Aluminum and a very soft micro-fiber towel.

Sequence of steps:
1) Die grinder with fine woven pad until the surface is flat flat flat and all the casting inconsistencies are 100% removed.

2) Using the brown clay compound to remove the fine scratches caused by the die grinder then the green clay compound for the polish.

3) Acetone and shop towels \ brake parts cleaner and compressed air to remove dust and residue(s)

4) Mother Mag polish and micro-fiber towel.

5) New OEM Bruss valve cover gaskets ($40 shipped)

If you already own an air compressor, a good angle grinder and the air tools listed. You can do this entire job for $40 (give or take)
easily.

After the job is done, maintenance of the luster will only require the occasional use of the Mothers polish.


Be safe and take your time.
Yasin

 

Very clean.

 

You need to seal the ally or it will tarnish pretty quick.. I did the "polish" or more a swirl finish and after a month or two they were a dull grey.

Looks incredible but you need to seal the finish.

I ended up painting mine with silver caliper paint

 

Steve - I figured someone would mention a "seal". I typically use a final liquid polish that uses a petroleum distillate (I wish I knew the actual chemical) whereby if used approx. twice per month, will not tarnish or "grey". I have been polishing metals since 1996, so have experimented with products that work and those that don't.

All the aluminum wheel lips that I re-finish never require a seal or clear coat either.