Sanding / Planing valve covers

[archtech]

Doing valve adjustments. I used 220 grit sand paper (is this a decent grit for this?) to plane the contact surface of the valve covers. Cant seem to get it completely bright. There looks to be a small area that is barely warped... its at the corners where there are no bolts. How close do I need to get so that the gasket can take up the difference? Looking at the pics, the black marks are the areas that barely got sanded. Am I close enough? Thanks!

[cgarr]

looks good to me, more important its done on a flat surface..

[archtech]

Yup! Sandpaper glued to piece of polished granite.

[Tidybuoy]

One way to sand smooth is to take a piece of glass (laying on a flat surface), pour a little oil on it and then lay the sand paper on it. The oil will help keep the sandpaper locked onto the glass. I did this when I sanded the paint off the Porsche letters on the valve covers and I suspect that this would work well for the gasket side as well.

[KNS]

Don't worry about the uppers too much, they rarely give any problems with leaks.

[john walker's workshop]

you're done.

[Jrboulder]

One way to sand smooth is to take a piece of glass (laying on a flat surface), pour a little oil on it and then lay the sand paper on it. The oil will help keep the sandpaper locked onto the glass. I did this when I sanded the paint off the Porsche letters on the valve covers and I suspect that this would work well for the gasket side as well.

Good tip -- based on the way they make plate glass it's about the flattest surface readily available.

[T77911S]

i used 600 on mine.
one other thing. take a die and go over all the studs. it will really help in torquing the valve covers. it takes time, but worth it.

[bpu699]

Don't the scratch marks INCREASE the risk of leaking??? Those seem somewhat rough. Or, do you polish it now?

[john walker's workshop]

a nice belt sanding table takes just a minute or so, compared with doing it by hand. 220 is mighty fine and time consuming. 80 works great and the surface is still smooth.

[aston@ultrasw.c]

Try moving the cover in a figure of 8 pattern, the random nature of the lines will give you a better surface.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Go to Home Depot and get sandpaper for floor sanders, you can get 12x18 sheets.

Spray tack it down to something flat. Throw some diesel on there as a lubricant and have at it. Done.

[Kidasters]

Silicon valve cover gaskets - from our host.

I installed them a few years ago. Didn't do any sanding on the valve covers. No leaks.

[dicklague]

Originally Posted by Kidasters

Silicon valve cover gaskets - from our host.

I installed them a few years ago. Didn't do any sanding on the valve covers. No leaks.

I was just going to suggest that. They are great and reusable as well.

I was wondering about all the fuss of getting a piece of granite etc...

[gearya]

just use some thick plate glass