Continuing to refine the valve cover baffle... Decided it didn't really need to be the full length, so left it with only using 2 of the valve cover holes and started working on the end caps. I still need to shift the openings around the valve cover bosses and tighten them up some.


When the valve cover is installed, the 1/8" wide slots will be vertical.


The plate on the exit side still needs some work. It was shaped to fit, so the 1/8" spacing from the end of the slots to the end of the plate were lost. The next iteration will also start having some bent up tabs along the bottom to help hold the baffle material in place when the valve cover is lifted off.


Once I get something I am happy with, I might try cutting it out in 16ga aluminum, as it would be lighter.

I am pretty much done with the fab work on the valve covers.



This shows all the spacers between the adapter plate and the head.


Here is a picture with the installed baffle. I ended up making the air path slots larger so they cut better on the plasma.


Better picture of the baffle area. The 2nd baffle plate will be riveted in place on final install.




At the bottom is the final part. The rest are just progress pieces for the scrap pile


Now I just need to find a 5/8" hose connection 90 and a cool oil fill cap.

On Saturday I will try some powder coating.
Picked up a small sand blaster and prepped everything today.

That is some awesome stuff! Looking slick and precise, as always!

Not too bad for my first time powdercoating!

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 03-29-2025).]

Looks nice.
What PC gun did you use? I have the harbor freight one and did some 88 caliper bridges I used the HF red and they turned out great. They cleaned off so much better than painted.
I had an old toaster oven. But it's too small for valve covers. What did you use for an oven?

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SSFiero@Aol.com

quote Originally posted by KissMySSFiero: Looks nice. What PC gun did you use? I have the harbor freight one and did some 88 caliper bridges I used the HF red and they turned out great. They cleaned off so much better than painted. I had an old toaster oven. But it's too small for valve covers. What did you use for an oven?

I picked up an Eastwood PCS-250 Dual Voltage powder coat gun last year.
I used the higher 25K volt setting.
Before filling the powder, I screened it through some paint filters.
Powder was from Prismatic Powders.
400 degree cure temp for 12 minutes.
Used the kitchen oven.

Here are all the steps to prepare and finish the valve covers.
Cleaned them with brake clean and let dry for a day.
Preheated the oven at 450 degrees for 2 hrs, while cleaning the racks from any oils/grease.
Baked valve covers in the oven at 450 degrees for 30 minutes to bring any contaminents to the surface - I wanted this to be hotter and longer than the powder coating cure.
Sand blasted the covers.
Cleaned with brake clean again.
Used 220 grit sandpaper with a 2" x 2" x 10" aluminum block and smoothed out the letters and emblem.
Applied the powder across the entire valve cover.
Wrapped tape around the block with sticky side out.
Placed the block over the letters and emblems a few times to remove about 80% of the powder.
Wiped the rest off the letters with my fingers.
Baked & cured.
Used the same block with 320 grit sand paper to further smooth out the letters and emblem.

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 04-01-2025).]

how did you filter the powder through the paint filters?
My initial thought is that the screen on a paint filter would be too small to easily let powder go through it. So if you filled it up part way with powder, then held the filter over a bowl and "shook" it (lightly, of course), very little would get through before the larger particles would clog it up?

The double clean process is something I suspect a lot of shops don't do, which is a shame because the purpose makes sense. One of the places Mike used to use for powder coating made it clear they weren't going to do any prep work, they expected the part to be ready to spray-and-bake. He no longer goes there. lol

quote Originally posted by Trinten: how did you filter the powder through the paint filters? My initial thought is that the screen on a paint filter would be too small to easily let powder go through it. So if you filled it up part way with powder, then held the filter over a bowl and "shook" it (lightly, of course), very little would get through before the larger particles would clog it up?

I just scooped the powder into the filter with a spoon and then tapped the side of the filter with the spoon and the powder passed through the filter - slowly. The powder is very fine, so nearly all of it passed though.

quote Originally posted by Trinten: The double clean process is something I suspect a lot of shops don't do, which is a shame because the purpose makes sense. One of the places Mike used to use for powder coating made it clear they weren't going to do any prep work, they expected the part to be ready to spray-and-bake. He no longer goes there. lol

I tried my best to keep the valve cover clean while doing all the test fits, but when I tapped the ends for the PCV hose barbs, that required oil, whch can be absorebed into the pores of the aluminum

This is the 4th set of power coated valve covers in the last year or so.
First was my original oem smoothed set. I had to remove the bondo and used JB weld so the powder would stick. Didn't do any preheat and the JB weld shunk as the powder cured... scrapped set #1.
2nd set was another smoothed set, but had too much porosity, so there ended up being porosity and holes in the coating... scrapped set #2
3rd set is what was on the car the last year. They were OK, but some sanding scratches showed through. Most people wouldn't notice, but I knew they were there and the valve covers were pretty plain.

I wasn't taking any chances with the current set, so I did everything I could to ensure they were defect free, time and $$$ was less important than the end result.

Most would think it is insane the $$$ spent chasing this valve cover obsession (cost of 3 new valve cover sets, billet adapters I didn't use, and the countless hours in each iteration, the current adapter plates, and the PVC/catch can baffles... all to satisfy my quest for a certain look and avoiding the hoses and clutter of catch cans.

It was a busy and productive weekend:

Finished the work on the valve covers. Installed the two PCV hose bibs on the ends of the valve cover, and made filler caps. The front one I made an aluminum plug and an o-ring seal and bolt on the inside that holes if in place. The rear one I modified the LS4 oil fill cap to work with the old style rubber grommet fill point. Once those items were done, installed the adapters, then the stainless brillo pads, then the valve covers for hopefully the last time.

Once the valve covers were done, I could install the new bracket for the tensioner, the water pump with the new pulley, and heat shrink the thermostat hose to the new cross car coolant tube. With the pulley being smaller and the tensioner moving up, the original belt still works.


Started looming the harness from the back of the engine. Continued to loom the harness around the bellhousing, picked up all the wires for rear coils, the transmission and intake manifold. The harness on the intake was zig zaged between the injectors and the bosses for the hold down bolts to help keep it hidden. Stopped looming the harness over by the starter. Still need to loom the front of the engine, the front coil pack, and then install the mockup for the ecm panel and the firewall pass through.

With most of the rear wiring loomed, started playing with rerouting the charge piping and mocking up the TR-8C. It looks like I need cut off both hose barbs off the end and weld in some tight 90s to make the needed room for it to fit. With the hose barbs, there isn't enough room for the 90s that are needed. By welding tight aluminum 90s, I will gain about 3" overall which would work. The other issue with the A/C compressor mounted low, the hardlines coming out of the compressor interfere with the 3.5" thick intercooler with the intercooler flush with the bottom of the cradle. So I picked up a new LS4 A/C hose setup, cut off the hoses, and just kept the compressor end. Crimed on the new hoses, and gentrly pursuaded the hardlines to alter their path. Ended up with 1/4" clearance. I can't finsih the A/C hoses until the engine is in the car. I am also kicking around switching to an A2W intercooler setup with the heat exchanger where I planned to mount the TR-8C. The A2W is supposed to support 1200 hp and the TR-8C is rated for 500 hp. With either solution, I needed to reroute the charge pipe to the front of the engine. So I spend the rest of the day working on rerouting the charge pipe.

The direct route is for the 2.5" pipe to go over the top of the transmission and under the throttle body. To help with this I needed to rotate the compressor housing so the outlet wasn't vertical. That required a 2nd bolt for the clamp plates to be countersunk to clear the oil drain housing, so the compressor housing needed to come off. While it was off, I went ahead and drilled out the compressor housing boost reference boss. With the compressor back on and rotated, I was able to reinstall the air filter. Then spent a fair amount of time adjusting the leg lengths on a couple of 45 silicone hoses to offset the charge pipe so it will clear the coils, the shifter counterweight (reverse if the limiting factor) and the bottom of the thottle body hose. Once the hoses were good, then started trimming the 2 1/2" hardline. With the 2 1/2" pipe on the front side of the throttlebody, this position will work for either intercooler setup.

So to be able to drive the car while I figure out the intercooler solution, uses a 2.5 to 3" reducer, a 3" 180 hose, a 3" hard pipe with blow-off port, and a 3 to 4" 90 degree elbow.

Here are some progress pictures:









Now, I need to run the poly lines from the compressor, to the mac valve, to the wastegate. Then install the exhaust and rework the support off the compressor housing (with it now rotated, I need to rework this bracket. Then get back to wiring and terminations.

quote Originally posted by fieroguru: Most would think it is insane the $$$ spent chasing this valve cover obsession (cost of 3 new valve cover sets, billet adapters I didn't use, and the countless hours in each iteration, the current adapter plates, and the PVC/catch can baffles... all to satisfy my quest for a certain look and avoiding the hoses and clutter of catch cans.

Thank you for the details and explanation. And if anyone can appreciate chasing an outcome to get exactly what you want regardless of the time/money/difficulty, it's me.

The outcome is absolutely awesome man.