Valve covers

To clean valve covers of all the grime and paint, solvent can be used. The covers are made of steel.

In some instances, after cleaning the engine, one or both valve covers may have been finished with a powder coating in a 'crinkle' finish. To remove the crinkle finish, several solutions have been suggested on the CorvairListServe

These are:

• Carb cleaner
• Chemical strippers
• A wire brush in a drill also works.

However, the following approach appears the most definitive.

Powder coat is applied by putting on a coat of powder (pigment and a powdered solid material) and then heating it up enough to make the powdered material melt and flow together. Heat it up again and the material becomes very weak and comes of with simple tools such as a wire brush, scraper, wire wheel, etc). The easiest method to raise the temperature sufficiently is to heat it up with a propane torch. The powder coat in the heated area will wire brush right off if the brushing is done while the powder coat is still hot.