Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance Aluminum valve cover

I guess this goes in this area.
I'm looking at buying an aluminum valve cover for my 250. I'm thinking of having it polished and clear anodized. Is there any reason this would not be a good idea?

Can't think of one......

You can also go with a Clear Powder coating.

I know aluminum's thermal properties are advantageous. But I don't know what effect polishing or putting a coating on it has on its heat shedding properties? Is aluminum best in its blasted and unfinished state? Does paint, powder coating, or anodizing affect it? Does the polished surface reflect heat back in?

I got a polished aluminum valve cover from Tom Lowe....and with some polish and a rag that sucker pops!

Back in my younger years when i was young and dumb, I did alot of kart racing with aluminium yamaha engines. Most all the engines that raced in that division had the top part of the head painted black. The engine builders claimed that having the head painted black attracted the heat away from the cylinder and up to the top of the cylinder were the air flow over the finned cover could cool the engine faster.
Is this in fact true.........i have know Idea.
Does this have anything to due with a polished inline six valve cover.....I have know idea.

Why are you trying to compare a single cylinder air cooled 2 cycle engine to a valve cover for a 6 cylinder water cooled 4 cycle one ? Though any increase to the go cart engine would always be an advantage, several possible degrees on your 6 cylinder valve cover might be somewhat difficult to determine. Seems a question not needing to be answered, though I do applaud your question. Just a thought.

Hi Martin;

No real downside.

Doug, I wasn't trying to make any comparison. I just thought it was humorous as to the extent people will go to try and make improvements to their engines performance when its not really necessary. polishing a valve cover? Really?

Stan, Being somewhat old & feeble, I did not recognize the humor aspect of the post. My bad. I shall try to improve in the future.

No reason whatsoever that I can think of. The only thing to be aware of is what valve gear you're using. On my 250, I used Crower steel roller rockers, and had a Mercruiser aluminum valve cover I was planning to use. The plan didn't work out, because the Crower rockers (with the locking adjusters) are taller than stock Chevy rockers, so the Mercruiser valve cover wasn't usable after all. I had to get one of Tom Lowe's aluminum valve covers to have enough clearance for the Crower rockers. I suspect that other makes of roller rockers are similar, at least the full roller rockers that have both roller bearings and roller tips. The roller tip rockers that use a standard type rocker ball would probably be fine as far as clearance goes. With full roller rockers, Tom Lowe's aluminum covers are definitely the hot setup.

But if you're using stock rocker arms, you should be able to use any aluminum valve cover you want. Polishing it and clear coating it might possibly have some minor effect, but it would be so small that you'd never be able to notice it. On the plus side, a polished aluminum valve cover really looks good.

I put in tom lowes side and valve covers, really like the look.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/194-230-250-292-Chevy-6-valve-cover-CNC-3-4-thick-billet-spacer-/201592669369?hash=item2eefdc04b9:m:mfEIMOTl4EVbnEan3pb_jhw&vxp=mtr

MBHD

Helping you out Hank. Here!

Thank you. I have been using my phone to post here because my home PC will not let me log onto the website for a long time now ( 6 months)so I do not post so much anymore because using my phone is a pain.

I found that I cannot cluck "keep me logged in". Follow the procedure in help to wipe cookies and only manually log in when you need to post.

X2, I used Tom's valve cover and Mike aka MRHOTROD 6's side covers. They make a fine addition.

I'm looking at Tom's valve cover on EBay right now. I figured I'd ask questions. Thanks.