Now I Remember Why I HATE Welding Okd Castings

Welded up StanG’s exhaust this evening. Figured I’d finish up my valve covers why I was on a roll.

Reminds me why old castings suck. So much oil and ??? Buried in the pores. Had to weld these holes up 5 times. Each time it burned out a bit more crud. But each time when I ground it down there where voids.

But anyway. Here is my NOW non-emissions valve cover.

Pete received the take off parts today.

Still need to do final sanding and then polish or paint.

This looks great Frank, and thank you for touching up that exhaust!

I was going to do exactly the same - I got a spare cover just for this. Great to see it done!
So, did you weld the holes all the way to the underside? The top valve chambers are just shaved off, right?
Yeah, those I bought had extreme buildup of greasy carbon. I took me quite some time to remove as much as I could. A VERY dirty job, as I'm sure you know! Then I put them in an ultrasonic bath and then ran very hot water over everything, to dry it with a hair dryer at the end. Then - bead blasting and another hot water rinsing. I think they are well prepared for whenever the welding will come.

I see you also went for the black theme on the head. I love the KZ in black and silver! What are you going to do with the cover? All polished? I did mine also black except for the polished ends.

I see a timing advancer case in the background

I only welded up the top 1/4”.

I’m painting it silver. Did the small bits and the crank covers silver. Have stainless button head bolts for the visible bolts.

I’m going the ELR scheme but Red instead of Green. Like some of the ZRXs. Our last green race car got mangled real bad second time out. Nothing like trashing a car with 20 miles on it. So can’t bring myself to do green again.

The valve cover is just as thick under the reeds as anywhere else. You could do this by cutting off the raised sections, tapping the exhaust holes for NPT plugs, plugging, then filling with bondo or JB weld then sand and paint.

After paint...

Do you have a paint preference? Did you or will you use clear (in the head as well)?
One last - did you bake it or that will happen when engine runs?