Valvecover & Supercharger Powdercoating Prep
 

Guys. For those of you who powder coated their valve cover and supercharger yourselves (if any)

Did you media blast them? If so. What type of media did you use? Soda?

When searching I also saw where people mentioned they used a specific temp. Any guidance would help.

soda gives too fine of a finish, its best to use sand or garnet to blast for powder.

the temperature, thats based on the powder. the powder you buy should have a tag with instructions on it, for example, 10 minutes at 375*f. now keep in mind that the temp and time given is the temperature of the metal, so in my example you need the part to get up to 375*f, and then it needs to be there for 10 minutes. keep in mind setting you oven on 375*f may not get the part that hot, this is one of those things you gotta learn as every oven is different.

Silica sand (play sand) is not recommended because you can damage your lungs breathing the dust: https://www.osha.gov/Publications/osha3176.html

Soda, aluminum oxide, and glass are good alternatives. I have used play sand years ago at my own risk for small jobs, consider I knew the dangers and I wore protective equipment and performed the work outside.

it depends on how its prepped. the best method of prepping for powder is media blast, however sand will get trapped in the baffles and you cant get it out, and it will end up in your engine. this leaves you with a couple options, the easiest one is instead of media blasting you sand the valve cover with sandpaper and chemically clean it, this will provide an adequate surface for powder coat to stick to. the other option is to disassemble the valve cover before blast, although this is a little trickey on our engines. the baffles are held in place by cast in pegs that were peened over to retain the baffle, they must be taken out by grinding the peened over pegs off. to reattach the baffles later you must drill and tap these pegs for small screws to hold the baffle in. special care needs to be taken when installing the screws, red loctite at a minimum must be used, and id recommend loctite primer be used as well to make extra sure the loctite cures properly.

ive used all 3 methods of prepping valve covers, the powder never came off any of them, but i know of a failed engine from the first method. friend of mine was given a blasted valve cover to coat that still had the baffles in, he coated it and told the guy he had to clean it out himself and recommended removing the baffles. end result was a brand new engine with low oil pressure, scored cylinder walls, and an oil filter fill of blast media.

Good point on the baffles. Maybe the best method would be soda because it will dissolve in water to clean it out of the baffles.

I blasted my valve cover on a fully assembled engine.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...6cbd860aac.jpg


I disassembled an LE5 valve cover showing the baffles in detail, lots of places for abrasive to hide. Link to full thread here: PCV Baffles UNCOVERED - 2.4 LE5 Ecotec
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.cob...398664adb5.jpg

How large is your compressor? I need to upgrade if I decide to do it all.

I got this one from Menards, Sanborn 60 gallon 240v: https://www.menards.com/main/tools-h...4439609007.htm