Opinions on painting valve covers and intake

zenboy99 · Feb 9, 2008

I have my intake and heads off to shave them 0.020" Have a friend that painted my car and I was thinking maybe I could paint my intake and valve covers? Possibly even the AFM power pipe. I'm getting new Ford Racing ribbed valve covers (only thing that will fit under the Holley).

My question is, do I leave the polished look? or paint it green like my car, or a flat black finish?

I just watched horsepower TV about the new thing of painting intakes black to dissipate heat, doubt it makes any difference but its worth noting.

Just throwing out ideas and want opinions. I can get them painted for next to nothing.

BlownFiveLiter · Feb 9, 2008

I'm debating the same thing this year. I think I'm going to paint my black TFS valve covers green and leave the raised letters alone. Not sure on the intake though. I like it silver in a way.

zenboy99 · Feb 9, 2008

I had planned on leaving the raised letters and ribs on the intake and valve covers silver, thought that would look cool.

BlownFiveLiter · Feb 9, 2008

I agree. That's my plan with the TFS covers as well.

95opal · Feb 9, 2008

Not sure about the valve covers but my AFM covers fit no problem.

As far as the painting, I would suggest powdercoat as its alot more durable. Here are a few of my Holley before and after powdercoat and the TFS I had Powder coated.

View attachment 331143

View attachment 331145

View attachment 331147

blksn955.o · Feb 9, 2008

I had my upper powdercoated metalic silver and love it. Very durable and easy to clean. I am thinking about getting my lower done in black while I have it off to replace my lifters.

I also want to get my fox covers done in silver metalic but want to see if the coater can put two black stripes were the indention is on the fox covers (the side indentions) otherwise I will just go with one color.

zenboy99 · Feb 9, 2008

Awesome, mind if I ask how much it costs?

blksn955.o · Feb 9, 2008

I found a local guy who was starting a side job powder coating. He charged me like 60 or so for the upper, 35 or so for the brackets, IIRC 20 for chrome powder coat on my alt. case.

All prices were with bead/sand blasting to make sure they were clean before coating.

I did do a LOT of sanding and grinding on my upper to get it smooth and also smoothed out the casting marks on the brackets and alt. cover.

StadEMS3 · Feb 15, 2008

I painted mine myself. Not a big fan of tons of chrome.

GTA_V6_Mustang · Feb 15, 2008

stadems3 that battery cover is kewl, where did u get it and how much?

zenboy99 · Feb 19, 2008

Thanks for the pic, I was hoping to go with green or black. Nice to see what it looks like under the hood.

Zero Signal · Feb 19, 2008

I like the silver unless you do much work and sand the casting smooth and make the paint really smooth and glossy. I've seen some tubular GT40 intakes that look freaking sweet when they match the car since they always come out looking smooth as glass. Painted cast intake aren't so hot to me unless they've done the work to make the finish nice and smooth. (the cobra one above is pretty nice!)

zenboy99 · Feb 19, 2008

Thats a good point. A flat black would look OK though, but color should be shiny

RIO5.0 · Feb 20, 2008

Black tends to make the upper...disappear....Green or polish will stand out more.

2002VertGT · Feb 20, 2008

Chad, did Matt tell you about the Horsepower TV episode where they talked about the new "trick" of painting intakes black to help dissipate heat?

Opinions on painting valve covers and intake

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